Twisted Realities
by Shady-777
Summary: Just after ROTJ, Han and Leia turn up missing, and a mysterious force thrusts 19 year old Anakin Skywalker into the future where he must overcome his differences with his son and figure this out! A perfect blend of humor and seriousness!
1. Father and Son Reunion

**A/N: **_Ok, this is my first Star Wars fic, and it involves time travel and the impossible. I thought it'd be fun to see young Anakin and Luke together on a mission--or, heck, together **period**. This fic centers mostly around them and takes place days after the last scene in Return Of The Jedi. For the most part it is light-hearted and fun, but it will get a bit darker in spots, so be warned. Rated T for violence. Nothing too graphic, but it probably isn't the kind of thing you'd want to read to your 5 year old before bed. For my own sanity, in this and any other Star Wars fics I may do in the future, I will be completely ignoring the "New Jedi Order" storyline and the very existence of Mara-Jade. ( How I loathe her:( **Fair warning: My fic is going to disagree with the books on probably a great many things. Just so ya know!**_

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Disclaimer thingy: _Obviously, I am not George Lucas, and I do not own Star Wars or anything connected with it. Think about it, if I _**were **_George Lucas, would I be writing fanfic about my own movies?_

Ok, on to the story! ( At first you may have de-ja-vu )

**Chapter One**

" You're going to pay for all the Jedi that you killed today, Dooku." Young Anakin Skywalker announced once he and his master Obi-Wan-Kenobi had caught up with the fleeing Sith.

Now they stood, lightsabers drawn, not far from the arched entryway inside a large temple of some kinda where the loathed Count Dooku turned to face them.

Anakin felt his blood boil. This was the monstrosity that had put his and so many other lives in danger, this was the fiend who had been both directly and indirectly responsible for the Jedi massacre that was still occurring this very instant! Such actions were not to be withstood.

And Padme'...well, Padme' wasn't going to be safe either with scum like this on the loose.

" We'll take him together," Obi started, a battle plan already forming in his mind, " You go in slowly and I'll..."

But Anakin wasn't interested in battle strategies. " I'll take him NOW! " He declared in a voice that was half hiss and half growl; his eyes narrowed dangerously in an expression of pure rage. He surged forward, rushing Dooku with his blazing green lightsaber.

" No Anakin, no! _No! _" Obi shouted, displeased by his apprentice's lack of discipline and doubly worried for his safety.

His worries were not misplaced.

Anakin would've done well to heed his master's advice, for no sooner had he covered half the ground between him and his opponent when Dooku's hand shot forward and crackling blue force-lightning erupted from his fingertips, striking him full in the chest before lifting him up and flinging him into a wall as if he were no more than a mere toy.

Dooku smirked evilly, and now his attention focused on Obi-Wan. He circled his adversary the way a patient shark might circle a fisherman's boat. " As you see, my Jedi powers are far beyond yours." He gloated, certain Obi would be no match for him, " Now, back down."

What Dooku most wanted to do right then was leave. Though the idea of teaching Mr. Obi-Wan-Kenobi and his foolish apprentice a painful lesson in the ways of the force was tempting, he had appointments to keep, and backup for his Jedi foes could arrive at any moment, and if that happened...well, then things would just turn nasty. Obi and his padawan he was sure he could take, but a small army was quite another matter. Since he was kinda in a hurry, he twitched his wrist and sent a bolt of power hurling at Obi. It was his hope that he would either strike Obi, or his rival would see he was outdone and rush to the aid of his comrade rather than pursue him.

Neither happened. Less impulsive than his padawan, Obi simply raised his lightsaber and all of Dooku's force lightning vaporized into nothingness upon impact of the sizzling blade.

" I don't think so." The Jedi master replied rather coolly to Dooku's request.

This enraged Dooku. _Well then, I guess we'll just have to settle this the hard way! _He thought, leaping to the attack. Obi was ready for him, and the two were clashing lightsabers in no time flat.

Meanwhile, on the ground, a dazed Anakin moaned, trying to shake off the effects of Dooku's magic.

X-x-X

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Many years in the future...

Luke was starting to get very worried. It was well into the second day since he had last seen Leia and Han, and his instincts told him there was trouble.

" Where could they be? " The young Skywalker paced about, scanning the barren desert landscape of Tatooine with growing anxiety.

Days after the bit where he and his rebel friends had destroyed the Death Star saved billions, perhaps trillions of innocents lives from the icy clutch of the Empire, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, the droids, and Luke himself had flown the Millennium Falcon to Tatooine for a brief stay. It had been Luke's idea: painful as the memories of his dead aunt and uncle were, he needed some since of closure from his home planet, to collect a few of his belongings and say goodbye to a few of his old friends and acquaintances. To just disappear from their lives so suddenly and without explanation had seemed wrong, and now that the Empire was no longer a threat, he wouldn't be putting anyone in danger.

They had parked Han's ship close to the very space in which Luke's old home had stood. Luke himself was standing outside in the pale orange wind-swept desert, with the twin suns beating down fiercely on the fibers of his beige outfit. A hot wind blew up and tossed his dishwater-blonde hair about mercilessly.

" It can't have taken them that long to get supplies." He reasoned, " They should've been back yesterday, or early this morning at the very least."

It was yesterday evening that Han and Leia had gone into town via landspeeders, taking Chewbacca with them and leaving Luke with only the droids for company. Of course, Luke had had things to do--that was the reason he'd stayed behind in the first place--and he had assumed they would be back quickly.

But then a fierce sandstorm had flared up towards dusk, and it had lasted well into the night. Naturally, Luke had assumed they'd rented a room in town to weather the storm. In any case he'd been pretty tired right then--he hadn't been sleeping well lately--and had bushed inside the Millenium Falcon in his own makeshift bed without a second thought.

By morning he was beginning to worry, and now it was mid-afternoon and things were just starting to feel...wrong.

He stood still a moment, inhaling deeply and concentrating on his connection to the living force.

The others were in trouble. He could sense it, feel it as well as fact. _I've wasted enough time. I have to go after them._

" They're not back yet, Master Luke? " C-3PO's voice rang from behind, snapping Luke out of his meditation. He turned to see the gold-plated droid standing in the open hatch of the ship; the metal form of R2-D2 behind him beeping and buzzing away in a robotic language he could not understand.

Luke shook his head. " No. I'm going out after them."

X-x-X

**Back in the past...**

" Master Kenobi, you disappoint me. Yoda holds you on such high esteem." Dooku was clearly enjoying the duel, and though Obi-Wan would never openly admit it, the remark stung.

He knew he was not the most skilled Jedi ever to hold a lightsaber, but he liked to think he was not bad either.

Dooku slashed for his face, and Obi brought his lightsaber up to parry the blow. There was a buzzing sound each time the two lightsabers clashed, and Obi and his rival were dancing around wildly in a deadly contest of skill and wit.

__

If only Anakin had done what he was told then we'd have a better chance of stopping this madman. He thought bitterly, dodging one of Dooku's blows and aiming one of his own.

Dooku blocked the attack in a way that seemed almost graceful--like fighting all came second nature to him.

_He's good. _Obi found himself thinking, _Too good...Anakin, I need you!_ Two Jedi were better than one, even if one of the said Jedi was an impulsive hot-headed apprentice who still obviously had a lot to learn. It would certainly be better than fighting on his own.

The laser-blades sizzled, red against blue, as Obi made another successful block.

Count Dooku grinned mockingly. " Surely you could do better."

Obi-Wan kept his expression unreadable, knowing Dooku's taunts were meant only as a distraction to throw him off-guard. From somewhere off to the side, he heard Anakin stir.

That's when Dooku struck: this time Obi was not quick enough and the red saber swung around in such a way that it knocked Obi's clean out of his hand and grazed his arm before continuing downward to swipe him in the thigh.

Obi fell to the floor with a cry of pain. Red lines appeared on the now exposed flesh of his arm and thigh.

Through wasting time, the evil Count raised his lightsaber with the tip pointed downwards and prepared for the kill.

But by this time Anakin had recovered from his shocking experience. Noting Obi's plight--and having absolutely no intention of seeing his master killed--he gathered the force in a tremendous leap that landed him right by his master's side.

Dooku's lightsaber collided with Anakin's a scary distance from Obi's face.

Dooku was not amused." Brave of you, boy. But I would've thought you'd learned your lesson."

" I am a slow learner." Anakin snarled back fiercely, blue eyes burning with rage.

_You can say that again. _Obi used the force to summon the handle of his now-deactivated lightsaber. " Anakin! " He tossed the weapon to his apprentice, too badly hurt to do much of anything else. _He's going to need it._

Anakin caught the extra lightsaber and activated it in a flash. Mind whirling with rage, and thoughts only on the destruction of his foe, he struck out. But the Count very easily parried his blows.

It was not an even match.

Anakin found himself defending more than attacking, and even with two lightsabers Dooku was backing him up.

_This isn't right! _He couldn't believe this guy. He was a regular lightsaber-dueling champion.

Without warning, there was a blur of red and Anakin suddenly found himself with only one lightsaber--his green one had been sliced apart at the handle and it was a miracle the blade had missed his hand. _Oh fudge. This is not good. This is not good at all_. He backed away further and sliced a big power cable that was laying along the floor, sending up a brief shower of sparks and plunging the room into dimness. Hopefully, that would help somehow--at this point Anakin wasn't really sure what to do other than to just keep fighting. _Obi, I could really use your help about now! _He thought as the ex-Jedi quickly closed the gap between them. _Is it just me, or are his attacks coming quicker now? _It seemed as if someone had flicked a switch and set Dooku from "active" to "hyperactive".

Then Dooku did something completely unexpected. Wanting to end the battle quickly, he feigned a swipe for Anakin's face, knowing the young Jedi would instinctively bring his lightsaber up to protect himself. Anakin did just that, but it was too late because Dooku stopped mid-swing and brought his lightsaber down in a lightning-quick movement to come up under Anakin's right arm in a motion that would sever it.

And it would've worked, too, but in the blink of an eye--when the blade was only inches from cutting off Anakin's arm--the impossible happened.

There was a blinding flash of blue-white light, and Anakin simply disappeared.

Count Dooku's blade sliced only air, and the Sith could not believe his eyes.

Anakin Skywalker was just gone. Just like that. With no trace.

" Well, that's new." Dooku's eyes widened in surprise and he stared blankly at the spot where Anakin had been.

At first he thought it was an act of the force, but then he realized it couldn't possibly have been. No Jedi could just disappear like that. Not even Master Yoda. In order to pull off a stunt like that, Anakin Skywalker would've had to have been a great deal more powerful than any Jedi ever known. He would've had to have been a god.

Obi, too, noticed the strange flash preceding Anakin's absence. And despite his throbbing pain, he was no less surprised than Dooku. He reached out with the force in an attempt to sense his padawan's fate, but there was nothing.

This deeply unsettled him. He would've felt if Anakin were alive or dead, but instead he was getting nothing. It wasn't as if Anakin were merely away, or even if he had died. It was as if he simply didn't exist. _How'd he do that?_

Neither man noticed Yoda enter just then, and the green Jedi master was somewhat surprised to see both Obi-Wan-Kenobi and Count Dooku staring at a space in thin air, their mouths open in comical little 'o's.

" Watching what are we? "

X-x-X

**In the future...**

Luke had just started for the ship when a bright blue-white flash struck like lightning and was gone in the blink of an eye, leaving a young man dressed in a dark brown Jedi outfit sporting a large black vest and wielding a blue lightsaber in his path.

" What the..."

The stranger was already slashing from the moment he appeared, and Luke backed up in just enough time to avoid being split down the middle. " Holy Jawas, who are _you! _" He gasped, though he could tell by the looks of him that the brownish-blonde haired man with a small braid hanging from beneath his right ear was another Jedi.

The stranger looked around, seeming confused and in a state of total shock. " What! Where's Dooku! Where's Obi! How the Hutt's butt did I end up **_here! _**"

Luke stared at this new Jedi as if he had just declared himself a jelly-filled donut and the king of Tatooine. _Apparently, he's just as surprised as I am._

Anakin spun around in a frenzy, frustrated and bewildered beyond the very meaning of the word. " Where am I! " He yelled loudly, completely ignoring Luke while looking around wildly.

His eyes fell on C-3PO and R2-D2 in the threshold of the ship, and recogintion registered. " Threepio! Artoo! What are you doing here! "

Artoo beeped in response, and Threepio said, " I beg your pardon, Sir, but have we met? "

Anakin was dumbfounded. " What do you mean _'have we met?' _I'm your creator! Artoo, you remember me, don't you? "

Now Luke was certain he'd seen it all. " Those are my droids. Were you one of their previous owners? "

Anakin spun around, and for the first time met Luke's gaze. " Who are you? " He demanded, accepting the fact that Dooku and Obi were nowhere to be found, and that something really weird was happening. He deactivated his lightsaber, and noted with interest that the man he now faced also carried the weapon of the Jedi.

_He's either a Jedi or a Sith. _He reached out with the force and felt that it was very strong with this individual.

" I'm Luke Skywalker." Luke announced, " A Jedi. You must be one too. Have a name? "

But Anakin stopped hearing what Luke said past the word 'Skywalker'. " You're a _Skywalker! _"

" Yes. What's..." Luke stopped mid-sentence, noting that his last name seemed to startle the newcomer more than anything else, if that was possible.

" I'm Anakin Skywalker."

Now it was Luke's turn to be completely shocked. _This is insane! This is incredible! This is...impossible!_

" But that's impossible! " Luke gasped, " That was my father's name! "

Anakin shook his head. " No, it's _my_ name, unless someone's going around pretending to be me."

Luke's world had been turned upside-down. The force told him it was true. Anakin _felt_ like his father, Darth Vader, only younger and livelier. He could sense a faint aura of the Dark Side around him, but it was nearly as pronounced as it had been in Vader, and even as it was occurring to Luke that this was indeed a younger version of the same person, it was also occurring that force-wise this Anakin was a mere shadow of his future self. He had never heard anything about the even remote possibility of time-travel, but surely it must be possible.

How else could he be standing next to a man who was most certainly his father, but close to his own age? The laws of nature didn't allow it. Yet here it was happening.

Still, he had to be one hundred percent sure. " Do you know Owen and Beru Lars? Did you fight in the Clone Wars, is your master Obi-Wan-Kenobi? " Luke's questions came in excited bursts.

" Yes on all counts." Anakin answered, a little unnerved. _How does he know so much about me?_

Now Luke was getting really excited--as if Anakin had just said the magic words. " What's the last thing you remember? "

Anakin frowned. Thinking of Dooku aroused bitter feelings. " Well, I was fightin Count Dooku in a temple on Genosis, and Obi-Wan was there. Right in the middle of our duel, there was a flash like lightning, and the next thing I know I'm here explaining myself to you and my droids, whom I can only assume had their memories erased. " His eye caught the twin suns in the sky. " Hey! This is Tatooine! "

Luke nodded. " Yes."

Anakin fixed Luke with those fierce blue eyes. " Do you know how I got here? And while we're at it, are you a relative of mine? " He narrowed his eye suspiciously at the other Skywalker.

Luke shook his head, barely able to contain his excitement. In all his years he could not remember a single more exhilarating moment, well, outside of destroying the Death Star and finding out Vader was his father_. I can't believe it! I'm actually getting to meet my father before he became Darth Vader! Probably before he became my father, too._ Had Luke been born during this Anakin's time era, he surely would've recognized the name of his own son right away, despite the age-leap. But judging by his behavior, it was perfectly clear that this Anakin had no clue that he'd been thrust forward in time. Certainly he didn't guess Luke to be his son.

Luke took a deep breath , not caring how it was possible, just enjoying getting to see his father again. " Ok, this may be hard to believe, but I think I know what happened to you. I don't know _how _or _why_ it happened, but I think you traveled in time and space." He extended his hand in greeting, " I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm your son. Welcome to the future."


	2. Sins of the Father

Chapter 2

" _What?! _" Anakin gasped, unable to believe what he was seeing and hearing, " This is…this…" he sputtered, ignoring Luke's hand and looking around in amazement. He'd known something was up from the start. There'd been a disturbance in the Force, like something knocked off-kilter or forced where it didn't belong.

But this…this was amazing. _The future?! One minute I'm fighting Count Dooku on Genosis, the next minute I'm on Tatooine about to shake hands with my son in the **future?! **_It was impossible, yet true. He could sense it with the Force. This was not his time.

" Master Luke, there surely must be a mistake." Threepio offered helpfully, breaking the awkward silence, "According to my calculations, the possibility of time-travel is approximately one-billion-nine-hundred-twenty-two-thousand-eight-hundred-sixty-nine to one."

Anakin was beyond shaken. " You're my…son? " He asked skeptically, eyeing Luke's hand as if it were potentially dangerous and noting the faint scar encircling his wrist. _I wonder how he got that? Hm, he does kinda look like me…kinda scrawny, though._

" Yeah." Taking the initiative, Luke reached out and grabbed Anakin's hand, giving it a brisk shake.

Briefly, he noted that he was using his right hand to shake his father's right hand, and it creeped him out slightly because Darth Vader had sliced off that very hand in a lightsaber duel not too long ago, and he could remember all too vividly that Vader's right arm had been nothing but wires and machine.

Of course, Anakin had no such memories. Nevertheless, Luke's touch electrified him—his midichlorians screaming ' blood relative '. _Gee, whatever Dooku did to me_…he wondered what had become of his master back in the past, and his mind flooded with the terrible image of Dooku slicing Obi up like a tomato in a salad-shooter. _And Padme'…what of her?_

" Who's your mother, then? " He blurted suddenly, catching Luke by surprise.

Luke stared at the ground sadly and kicked up a cloud of sand with the toe of his boot. This was one of the questions he'd been dreading.

" Um…I…I don't know. My mother died when I was very little. I don't remember her, actually. I've heard a few things here and there, but Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru never really talked about her much. I know I've heard her name before but…"

Anakin was on the verge of tears. " Was her name Padme'? " His voice came out in a hoarse croak.

Luke stiffened, sensing his father's pain and feeling like such a harbinger of bad news. " Yes…that sounds right. I'm sorry." He truly was. _I wish I had gotten a chance to know my mother._

" How did it happen? " Anakin demanded, glaring at Luke angrily as if it were somehow all his fault. _How could I fail to save her?_

Luke backed up, startled by the sheer ferocity in Anakin's voice . " I told you, I don't know. I was just a baby. My sister and I…"

" Your _sister_? "

Luke slapped a hand to his face, remembering Han, Leia, and Chewbacca. " That's right…they're missing today...I was just on my way to find them before you showed up and…" he gestured to the Millennium Falcon. " You'd better come in. I'll bring you up to speed."

O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Anakin sat facing Luke in the co-pilot's seat and listened with interest while his son filled in the blanks. " …so anyway, I came across Ben out in the desert after I was attacked by Tusken Raiders…"

" I _hate_ Tusken Raiders! " Anakin interrupted savagely, eyes burning with hatred, " They killed my mother! "

" Yes, me too." Luke agreed absently.

" They killed _your _mother too?! " Anakin sprang up in a frenzy, ready to rush out and hunt down and kill every last Tusken Raider on the planet.

" No! " Luke countered quickly, " I mean, I hate Tusken Raiders too. One whopped me on the head once with a gaderffi stick and I was sore for hours."

" Oh." Anakin sat back down, eager to hear what all had transpired during the past twenty-plus years.

" Anyway," Luke continued, double-checking the main controls of the Millennium Falcon to make sure it was in proper working order, " 'Ben' Kenobi turned out to be this old Jedi Knight Obi-Wan-Kenobi…."

" Obi? " Anakin grinned, happy that at least Obi had survived into the future, " What'd he look like? "

" Old." Luke muttered, frowning at the navigation systems screen. " Artoo, could you fix the data-output on the navigation systems? "

Artoo beeped what was presumably a 'Yes' and rolled over to a computer outlet in the wall.

" He had graying hair, a short beard, and wore a brown robe."

Anakin laughed out loud.

Luke resisted the urge to join him. _Oh, this is all so ridiculous! _" If you think that's bad, just wait until the part where I get to _you_."

That shut Anakin up.

" Obi showed me the Jedi ways and gave me my first lightsaber—a blue one which he said you had wanted me to have."

" Oh, so I _was_ still around. What else did Obi say? "

" He said you were dead."

This did not sit well with Anakin. " Was I? "

" No."

" Then why would Obi say that? " He leaned forward, resting his chin on one hand a paying very close attention.

Luke was getting a bit frustrated with all the interruptions. " Just…let me finish."

" Fire away."

" Ok, so Obi started training me to be a Jedi. But at the time we were in the middle of a mission to rescue this princess. I didn't know it at the time, but she was my twin sister Leia. Obi and I hired this man named Han Solo to take us to Alderaan where she supposedly was, but by the time we got there the planet was gone."

" Boy, that must've been one slow ship."

Luke shook his head, snickering, " No: it had been destroyed by this moon-sized space station called the Death Star."

Anakin's eyes lit up. " Wow. That sounds like some space station."

" It was. It was owned by the Empire, headed by Emperor Palpatine."

" Palpatine? " Anakin cocked an eyebrow; he'd heard that name before. " You mean like Chancellor Palpatine? What'd he look like? "

Luke made a face—he'd spent the last couple of days trying to forget. " Ugly. Horribly, horribly ugly. A wrinkled frog-face with bad teeth and B.O. that would offend a wookie."

Anakin shook his head. " Doesn't sound like we're talking about the same person then."

" I don't know," Luke replied. " this Palpatine was an evil Sith Lord. Now I'm going to make this kind of short because I'm worried about my sister and friends. The deal was, Palpatine had an apprentice called Darth Vader. Darth Vader was very powerful, but he had to wear a black body-suite because of injuries he'd received in a battle. He was part machine. Anyway, Obi-Wan ended up fighting Vader. It was a pretty quick battle from the little I saw of it…"

" What happened?! " Anakin pressed, eyes fixed on Luke.

Luke's grim expression said it all. " Vader won. Obi…I'm sorry, Dad. Your master was killed."

_No! _Anakin's jaw dropped, _No! Not Obi! _" You got revenge, right? Killed That Vader-guy? "

Luke didn't quite know what to say to that. He bit his lower lip and gave his father an awkward look. " Um…no. Not exactly. You see, I wasn't a well-trained Jedi yet and Vader could've wiped the floor with me. I ran away. But I came back later on, after I trained with Yoda on Dagobah. The next time I met up with Vader, we had one heck of a lightsaber duel." Luke's thoughts drifted to the past—his mind caught up in the echoes of yesterdays. Before he had known the awful truth about Vader, he'd been pretty intent on avenging Obi's death.

" And? " Anakin's remark snapped him back to the present.

He shook his head, as if that would somehow shake the memories away. That battle had been awful. Aside from getting his butt kicked, he'd even lost his right hand. He met Anakin's steely gaze, trying to picture him as Darth Vader. Well, it wouldn't hurt to exaggerate just a little, would it?

" I cut him up into pieces, killed the Emperor, and destroyed the Death Star."

Anakin was suspicious. " Really? " He was staring at Luke's scar.

Luke sighed, rolling his eyes." No, not really. Vader chopped off my hand and kicked me down a big shaft."

" What a jerk! If I had been there, I would've…"

Luke closed his eyes, temporarily shutting Anakin out. Here came the hard part. _But he has to know…he'd find out sooner or later anyway and I'd rather deal with this now than trust issues later_. A lot of people knew Luke was Vader's son. All it would take would be for someone to spill the beans around Anakin, and that would throw a wrench into everything. _Besides, I could really use his help right now. And if I tell him, well…what harm could it do? It's already too late to change the past. _

Wasn't it?

" You _were _there." He interrupted, " You were the one who chopped off my hand. That jerk, Darth Vader, was _you_."

Anakin raised both eyebrows and looked as though he'd been slapped. " Would you repeat that? " He sounded positively horrified.

Luke almost laughed at his father's funny expression. " Darth Vader told me he was my father before he kicked me down the shaft," he continued, purposely bending the truth which was that he himself had jumped down the shaft rather than ally himself with Vader, " Later, Yoda and Obi's ghost confirmed that Vader used to be Anakin Skywalker, my father. Apparently, you turned to the Dark Side at some point in your life, probably around the time I was born. Which would explain why someone took the liberty of hiding Leia and I from you. Actually, I'm kinda glad that happened. I don't want to even think about how we might have ended up with a Sith raising us. In the end, though, you tried to turn me to the Dark Side, but I wouldn't turn so Palpatine tried to kill me. You died saving my life. My rebel friends and I blew up the Death Star, and now the universe is a much safer place. Hopefully. This is the part where I'm not exaggerating. That happened just days ago."

Anakin shook his head in disbelief. " I turned to the Dark Side? I killed Obi? " It was a lot to process_. No wonder Yoda said my future was cloudy. I always wondered what he meant by that. But why would I kill Obi? Did he betray me somehow? And Luke_…the more answers he had, the more questions they brought on. " Why would I save you if I was evil? " He asked, taking it much better than Luke had expected.

" Well, you weren't all the way evil." Luke supplied, thinking of just how lame of an argument he was about to make, " I mean, sure, you killed Obi and probably a lot of other Jedi I don't even know about, you destroyed planets, and you nearly got me killed, but I managed to turn you back to the light just before you died."

Anakin snorted softly, shaking his head. " I don't want to be Darth Vader. I…however I turned, I'm sure it must've been Obi's fault! "

" Hey! " Luke shot, rushing to his old mentor's defense, " Maybe it was _your_ fault. I'm sure Obi didn't tell you to turn to the dark side of the Force."

" Well then how do _you_ explain it? " Anakin asked, angry, sad, and scared all at once, " A person doesn't just wake up one day and decide, '_Oh, what a nice day to turn evil and become a Sith'._"

Luke couldn't help but to smile at Anakin's comment. Trite but true. " I don't know why you turned. It could've been because you didn't want the hassle of a family for all I know. You know yourself better than I do…think about it. What would make you turn? "

" Maybe if Padmé died, I suppose. Though the closest I've come before was when my mother died…even then I wasn't thinking about turning Sith." He stood up and stretched, not wanting to think about people dying or turning to the Dark Side. Then a thought presented itself, _If I know this future, maybe I can alter it. All I have to do is protect Padmé better and make sure I don't turn Sith, and maybe this can have a happy ending. Yeah, when I get back to my own time, I'll make sure none of this ever happens. I certainly don't want to end up being Darth Vader and take orders from Chancellor Palpatine, if that's even who Luke meant._ He didn't want to be evil. He would just have to make sure it never happened. _Maybe that's why I got sent to the future…maybe this is just how things will happen if I continue down the path I've been going. Maybe this is my second chance to get it right. Yeah, that has to be it_. It was the only thing he could tell himself right then. The other possibility was just too morbid, and he didn't want to think about it.

Luke looked concerned. " You feeling okay? "

Anakin just laughed—a nervous reaction to conceal his true feelings. " I've just been flung into the future, confronted by my son, and told that I'm going to turn into an evil Sith Lord bent on death and destruction and betraying everyone I ever cared about. Not to mention killing my Master and losing my wife-to-be. Oh, and then there's the cheery thought of my own horrible death. Everything's fine, just fine. Never felt better."

For a moment, Luke wondered if he'd overdone it. _Maybe I told him too much too soon…I don't want him getting suicidal or anything._ He stood up and rested a hand on Anakin's shoulder, " Maybe you were sent here because you have a chance to change all of this." He offered gently, more to make Anakin feel better than anything else.

_Who knows though? _His hopes argued, _Maybe Dad **can **change the past. _It was a scary thought, but if people could just pop into the future defying all laws of nature, it wasn't much of a stretch to think that maybe changing the past would be possible too. Maybe create a sort of alternate universe or something.

" Maybe." Anakin agreed softly, his voice barely above a whisper. He walked away and stood over by the hatch, turning to face Luke with a grin that seemed as out of place as he was. " So, in this time, I was a powerful Sith. People afraid of me? "

Luke nodded, happy that Anakin seemed to be taking the news rather well. " Yep. You were the fear of admirals and Storm Troopers everywhere. Even cut off my hand." He held up his right hand in what seemed to Anakin like an almost proud display.

" Your hand looks very well for having been cut off."

" Well, at first I got a mechanical one to replace it, but then I ran across this race on one of the moons of Vega-Nine that had powerful healing and regenerative powers. For a hefty price, they were able to sort of…re-grow my hand, but I'll always have this scar as a nifty little memento. It's better than the mechanical hand, though. That thing was always short-circuiting and sometimes even making me do weird and rude gestures."

Anakin nodded, at the moment just allowing himself to be happy that at least he was getting a chance to see his son.

" Well, I'd better get going now. They've been gone way to long and I sense trouble." He gestured to the hatch, a happy spark of wild excitement flaring up in his eye, " Wanna come with? "

" Sure! " Anakin exclaimed, excited. It would give him a chance to get out and do something fun while he waited to appear back into the past, whenever that was going to happen. " But…call me Anakin. It's just too weird that…"

" I know how you feel." Luke agreed, hitting a button that would lower the other land-speeder from the belly of the millennium Falcon, " We must be pretty close to the same age, and that would definitely raise some eyebrows. But this is kinda cool, huh? Weird, but cool. And…hey! I don't have to be the last Jedi anymore! "

" You're the last Jedi? " Anakin marveled.

" Uh-huh. Well, that's what Yoda led me to believe, anyway. Before he died of old age."

" Oh."

Luke turned to face the droids, who were looking at him expectantly. " Threepio, Artoo, I need you to stay and guard the ship."

" Of course, Master Luke. We will guard it most efficiently." Artoo beeped, prompting Threepio to turn to him and say, " No, I don't think they will require our assistance. That _is_ young Darth Vader we are talking about."

" Hey! " Anakin gushed good-naturedly, " I am _not_ Darth Vader! "

Artoo beeped something in response, leading Anakin to ask, " What'd he say? "

Threepio looked up. " He says, _' Not yet' _." With that, he turned back to Artoo and said in a much lower voice, " I do suggest you watch what you say around him."

The Skywalkers just laughed.


	3. No Accident?

**Chapter 3**

Soon the two Skywalkers were speeding across the desert courtesy of Luke's shiny new landspeeder. Unfortunately, since it was the only one they had besides Han and Leia's, they'd had to ride double, and there had been a brief argument about who would drive.

Anakin had insisted that he was the best driver, and Luke adamantly disagreed. In the end though, Anakin had been forced to back down on the grounds that it _was_ Luke's landspeeder.

Now he sat on the back, holding onto Luke as the desert passed by in a sandy deep-orange blur. Though quiet on the outside, inside his mind was buzzing with thoughts, mostly thoughts about how Obi and Padme' were faring back in the past, how he was going to get back to his own time, and what he was going to do if he ended up stuck in this somewhat morbid future. _Of course, I must get back to my own time at some point, _he reasoned, _otherwise my children wouldn't exist right now._ It was a very good point, and one that comforted him to some degree.

Still, finding out about the whole Darth Vader deal had left a bad taste in his mouth, and it was all he could do to try not to think about it. _What is it that Master Obi-Wan always says? Oh yeah, to think positively._ Obi had always stressed to his young apprentice just how important it was not to focus on the negative.

Of course, Obi had no idea that his padawan was destined to turn evil and kill him.

Anakin shuddered at the thought, trying to focus on cheerier things like his children. It wasn't easy. Turning into an evil Sith and killing everything and everyone you once held dear had a way of gripping the mind.

" So, you've never heard of Count Dooku? " He managed over the hum of the motor.

" Nope." Luke replied without looking back, " That's a good thing. If you've never heard of him, he must be dead." _Maybe I got revenge after all._

" You know what they say about assuming."

" I do? " Anakin blinked. That was a new one.

They were entering the main town now, and Luke had to slow down to avoid mowing everyone over. He looked down at his gas gauge and frowned. There was maybe an eighth of a tank left--enough to get maybe four miles with.

" We're going to need more gas before we can make it back to the Millennium Falcon or anywhere else." He steered towards the nearest filling-station: a popular choice among most locals because it also happened to have a deli and a bar where customers who could afford to could relax and enjoy conversations with refreshments. In addition to this, ' ' _'Cum & Go' _as the sign out front read, was famous for it's gossip chain. It seemed everyone there knew something about everything and everyone whose business was really none of their concern.

Luke had never been there before, but he'd heard the place had a party-like, upbeat atmosphere despite the occasional brawls that tended to break out. Perfect. He figured he could hit two birds with one stone--getting gas _and _information.

He pulled up along the closest gas spigot--inches away from another vehicle containing a very grumpy dug--and got off.

The whole area was shaded thanks to a large roof placed over the service machines, and that the two Skywalkers were thankful for.

The moment Luke's foot hit the ground he felt a strong surge in the force and an instant attraction to the main station. Without a word, he bolted off--the nervous, jumpy feeling he always got when he felt he was being delayed from doing something important urging him forward.

Anakin didn't notice Luke's sudden departure--he was too busy looking around to see if anything had changed much since his last visit. It appeared not to have: still unbearably hot with short bursts of warm wind blowing the gritty sand all about to get into one's face, eyes, hair, and nose. Still the same species and buildings he remembered seeing as a child.

Everyone went about their daily bustle, not recognizing or even acknowledging the Jedi destined to become Darth Vader.

__

Not much has changed. It felt good to have something familiar in this alien future, and it helped to ease his nerves. I wonder if Watto's still around? The thought made him smile in spite of the fact that he had once been Watto's slave all those years ago. How surprised the Toydarian had been when his slave-boy had shown up as an adult Jedi! Anakin would've paid anything to have that moment captured on tape. Watto had been afraid of him, and more agreeable than ever before.

However, while he was lost in thought, remembering better times, he failed to notice the grumpy dug get out of her vehicle and start towards him.

" Hey, what are _you_ so happy about? " The dug barked, walking on her elongated arms and hands like all other members of her species.

The rude comment snapped Anakin out of his stupor and back to the present where female dug stood uncomfortably close to the speeder.

" What, is it a crime to be happy? " He said, resisting the urge to say something rude and sarcastic. After all, he was a Jedi, and Jedi didn't lower themselves to such levels. Usually.

" It is when you nearly crashed into my transport, you reckless driver! " The dug exploded, nostrils flaring with anger.

" I wasn't the one driving. " Anakin shot back, narrowing his eyes on the creature. She looked vaguely familiar somehow. " Besides, your transport wasn't damaged, so there's no harm done."

This answer did not seem to satisfy the female dug. She had been having a bad day as it was, and was just looking for a fight, and it didn't matter who or why. Furious, she reared up and kicked the side of the landspeeder with her powerful feet, leaving two generous dents in the shiny ivory chrome.

_Uh-oh, _Anakin thought, _Luke isn't going to like that._

" It's reckless drivers like you who are causing all the problems nowadays! " She hissed, preparing to strike again, " And then you always place the blame on someone else! "

Anakin's patience had just worn out, and he knew Master Obi would not likely approve of what he was about to do. _Then again, Master Obi will never know…_

The inside of the station reminded Luke a lot of the Mos Eisely Cantina, only with a fraction of the ruffians. In front of him lye the store part, stocked full of shelves and refrigerators loaded with snacks and merchandise. A lizard-like cashier of a species he didn't readily recognize was minding the sales and tending to an older human woman.

To the left lay the bar, with the diner to the right. Something drew him to the left, and he strode into the bar section among the throngs of drunken beings; wondering just what exactly he was looking for.

" Hi, may I get you something? " A medium-sized upright walking furry thing said from behind the counter, her words almost lost in the lively bustle of the patrons.

" Have you seen two humans and a wookie by lately? " He asked, feeling rather stupid for asking a bar matron when there was an almost zero chance of Han, Leia, and Chewie ever visiting a place like this when they had initially went out for supplies. _My god, what am I even doing here? This is such a waste of time._

He was at a loss to explain his actions in the past few minutes and it almost felt as if…as if he were being led around in a trance.

The bartender grinned widely, revealing rows of pointy white teeth, and Luke was suddenly gripped with a vision of the creature striking out and sinking those nice sharp chompers into the meat of his arm.

" You mean Han, Leia, and Chewbacca? You must be the famous Luke Skywalker. We've been expecting you. Wait right here, I'll get Lennton. He has a message for you." The hostess took off before Luke had time to utter a single word, leaving him both startled and confused.

_How does she know who I am? What's this 'message'?_

However, at mention of the name 'Luke Skywalker' the closest person to him--a young man not much older than Luke himself, and who was visibly drunk--started screaming " Vader's son! Vader's son! Vader's son! " at the top of his lungs and in several different tongues, all the while pointing madly at Luke. " Run for your life! It's Vader's son! "

" No! Wait, you…" The rest of Luke's sentence was lost in the wild roar of panic that followed several species in all shapes, colors, and sizes ran, rolled, skittered, slithered, hopped, and flew past and out the door, yelling and screaming in a loud racket.

_Oh great. _" Thanks a lot pal! " Luke grumbled at the young man, who turned and ran away so fast it was dizzying.

Outside, Anakin had just finished using the force to hang the offending dug from a sign-post by her clothes when a stampede of frightened creatures thundered out of the station and headed for their vehicles like they were being chased by a fleet of Sith Lords.

_Gee, I wonder what their problem is._

As if in response to Anakin's thoughts, a young man wearing an orange shirt ran out just then yelling " It's Luke Skywalker! It's Vader's son! Hide your babies and board up your windows! "

It was then that Anakin realized Luke was missing, and the odds were ten to one that he was in the station. _What has he been telling them?_

The young man gave Anakin a weird look, as if he could not quite comprehend why he wasn't moving. " What's wrong with you! " He ran up to him, eyes wide with fear, and breath smelling heavily of drink, " Aren't you afraid of Luke? "

Anakin shook his head. " No. Should I be? "

" There's no hope for you! " The wildly excited man threw before turning and running off into the streets, screaming like a wild womprat and causing quite a stir.

Anakin just shook his head, grinning. _I wonder what Luke's doing in there? _He'd always liked a bit of Chaos: this could be fun. He hurried into the station, making his way past frightened customers and completely ignoring the dug's cries to be let down.

A few of the patrons were unfazed by the pandemonium stirred up by the guy in the orange shirt. They sat about calmy, getting back to their business and evidently not caring if they were in Luke's presence.

Nobody was more upset by the commotion than Luke. _Why would they be afraid of me? Don't they know I'm one of the good guys? Hmphf, all this fuss just because my dad was one of the scariest men in the galaxy. That doesn't make **me** a villain._

" You caused quite a fuss," At this, Luke turned around and ended up face-to-face with his father, " Alright, what have you been up to? " The mischievous grin with which he said it made Luke wonder what _he'd _been up to.

" I think I'm on to something," Luke explained, " One of the bartenders knew who I was without me telling, and someone named Lennton has a message for me. Could be from Han and Leia."

" Oh," Anakin smirked, " So your first choice to look for them was in a bar? And while we're at it, what was all that fuss about Vader's son? "

Luke shrugged helplessly, " I don't know…some instinct drew me here. Might have been the Force, or maybe I'm just losing it. My name got mentioned, and the way they acted, you'd think _I_ was Vader. Kinda insulting, really. I mean, I blew up the Death Star, can't they tell I'm on their side? Unless, of course, they were loyal to the Empire."

" Or me."

" Possibly. But I didn't get the impression you had many friends."

" Oh hi there! " The new voice belonged to a very large, very heavy, four-armed humanoid with a squat head, two large brown oval eyes, a big mouth, and vertical slits in place of a nose. The creature's flabby chin was covered in a light stubble, and it's skin was a pale green.

A Truvian, as Luke recalled. They were not native to this planet, but they were known to be a pretty friendly race and were welcomed in most star-systems. This one was clad in blazing orange clothes that clashed so badly with the hues of his skin they war of the colors could almost be heard.

" Name's Lennton. Come back with me, we have much to discuss in private."

" In private? Why not here? " Luke asked, cautious.

The Truvian pulled his thick lips up in a heavy smile exposing several flat, beige teeth. With one massive arm, he gestured around to the customers. " Just trust me on this one. We don't want to be overheard. People are afraid of what they don't understand. You wouldn't want to end up with a repeat of the 'Vader's son' incident, would you? " His voice was course and gruff, but with a gentle, friendly inflection.

" No, I suppose I wouldn't." Luke answered, chuckling a bit at the strange face Anakin made every time the word 'Vader' was used.

" There you go then. This way." He turned and led the way down the aisle, " I think you'll be very interested in what I have to say."

" For his sake I hope so." Anakin muttered, following despite the fact that he had not been openly invited.

Luke wondered why he suddenly sounded so sour.

The two continued after Lennton, passing through a few 'staff only' doors and coming into a rather messy break-room boasting a center table all cluttered with crumbs and garbage, and a faucet and drink machine to one end.

Lennton sat in one of the sturdier seats alongside the white table and gestured for the Skywalkers to do the same. " Have a seat."

Luke obliged, purposely sitting a few seats down from the Truvian, and Anakin sat right next to his son.

Lennton grinned in a way that was starting to bug Anakin." Pleasure meeting you, Luke Skywalker. Darth Vader."

" Don't call me that! " Anakin protested, " My name is Anakin Skywalker."

Lennton chuckled casually. " I know. You're Luke's dad." He reached an arm over the table and grabbed a red pear-like fruit from a festively decorated dish. " Care for a fruit? "

Luke and Anakin both shook their heads. " No thanks."

Lennton frowned, hurt. " You Jedi. Always so down to business. Would it kill you to wind down a little, maybe have some fun every now and then? "

" Possibly," Anakin joked, " My master says Jedi aren't allowed to have fun. Or to be happy."

Luke elbowed his father. " He did not! "

Anakin grinned. " Okay, so maybe those weren't his exact words, but it was to that effect. And…how would you know? You weren't even there."

Lennton took a bite of his fruit and laughed heartily, making Luke a little uncomfortable. _What's so funny all the time?_

" You two," Lennton chuckled, " Easy to tell you're father and son."

" Yeah, because I'm perfectly old enough to have a son his age." Anakin said sarcastically, " I shouldn't be here, and we all know it. The question is, how do _you_ know it? "

" Because, Anakin my friend, I don't believe your arrival here was an accident……"


	4. Uh oh! Who Remembered the Gas?

****

Chapter 4

" Some time ago, the last of a highly evolved race of magical beings known as the Senttians arrived on this planet seeking refuge from an unseen enemy. They remained in hiding up until recently when their leader, Rajad, sought me out and told me of you and your friends. She knew your names. She even knew that you would becoming in today, and that you would be accompanied by a younger version of his father. "

" How could she have possibly known that? " Anakin questioned, raising a hand and using the Force to lift a couple of pieces of fruit from the bowl.

Lennton shook his head. " The Senttians are a secretive, mystical race. Not only are they shape-shifters who can take on almost any living form they want, they are also said to possess psychic abilities and magic. Though the true extent of their powers remains unclear, I'd be willing to bet they also have the means necessary for time-travel, as young Anakin's presence would suggest. Anyway, the important detail is that Rajad knew you would all come here, and that your friends would come up missing. She chose me to give you both the message to meet her. I do not know what exactly it's about, but I did get the feeling it was important."

Luke nodded, processing. " Okay. What's the address? "

Lennton scratched the stubble on his chin with one thick finger. " The Senttians generally try to stay hidden. Only the Tusken Raiders knew the safe paths of the remote caves they now inhabit. Of course, the Tuskens are extinct. Well, more or less."

" What do you mean _more or less'_? " Anakin demanded, thrilled at the aspect of a Tatooine without Tusken Raiders. He managed to float the fruits over Luke's head without Luke noticing.

" It's like this: bounty hunters from all across the galaxy had been coming here and killing them all off. Don't know why--I can't imagine why a dead Tusken would be worth so much money. Some rich big-shot must've wanted them all dead is all I can figure. I'm not saying that's a bad thing--they were a pretty savage race. But the Senttians must've seen some good in them. At least, they saw some good in _one _of them."

" _Good! _" Anakin sneered, the horrible memories of his mother's death fresh in his mind, " Those Tuskens are only good dead! " He let the fruit drop on Luke's head.

" Hey! You did that on purpose! " Luke groaned, giving his father an annoyed swat.

" Obviously." Anakin agreed playfully. To Lennton, he said, " I'm sorry, what were you saying? "

" The Tusken Raiders," Lennton went on as if nothing had happened, " the Senttians saved a Tusken child named Onyx using their magic to give her the guise of a human child. The hunters did not recognize her as being prey. Now Onyx is the last of her kind. I'm afraid only she knows where to find Rajad and the others."

Anakin snorted. " If this Rajad was so all-knowing, then she surely must've known that I hate Tusken Raiders. Why didn't she just meet us here herself? "

Lennton shook his head. " I'm afraid I don't have the answer for that. Perhaps you could ask her yourselves once you meet her."

" Do you know where to find Onyx? " Luke asked, putting the fallen fruit back into the bowl and resisting the temptation to splat one in Anakin's face. This wasn't the time for a food-fight.

" I sure do." Lennton nodded, " But first, I must have your word that she will not be harmed."

" Jedi do not harm children." Luke stated simply, as if any moron should know.

Lennton frowned. " You aren't the Jedi I was worried about. Luke. Rajad seemed more concerned about Anakin doing something."

_How do they know so much? _Anakin swallowed nervously, remembering all too vividly his mother's death and his rampage in the Tusken raider camp. To him, it had happened only hours ago, though over twenty years had passed here.

The pain of losing his mother had simply been too much, and it was because of this that he'd totally lost his head; brutally murdering every Tusken within the camp. Men, women…even children and pets. They'd all gotten what they'd deserved, and after he'd finished he hadn't felt even a twinge of remorse. Guilt, maybe, because Jedi were not supposed to act that way, but not remorse.

Jedi were not supposed to hate. Hate was linked with the Dark Side of the Force, and was not only discouraged but forbidden.

_And I hated…still hate them! _How could he help it? There was no excuse for what they'd done. He felt both Lennton's and Luke's eyes on him, and it made him uncomfortable.

" Well? " Lennton pressed, sensing Anakin's reluctance.

" Remember, Jedi aren't supposed to hate." Luke supplied tenderly, " Besides, if Onyx is a child then she couldn't possibly have had anything to do with your mother."

" No…no, you're right." Anakin agreed, " Only her sorry species! "

" Da…I mean, Anakin, you have to let go of your hate. It isn't fair to blame Onyx for something that she wasn't a part of. You know this."

Anakin crossed his arms and made a face, not finding any way to argue with Luke's logic.

_How am I going to get through to him? _Luke wondered, glancing to Lennton as if he held the answer.

" Well, this is a problem." Lennton stated, " Onyx is my friend and has a good heart. Despite Rajad's wishes, I couldn't risk lending her out without a guarantee of her safety. She is, after all, only a child."

" No, never mind, Lennton." Luke replied, aiming his comment as much for Anakin as he was the Truvian, " Darth Vader here would rather waste away and practice the Sith art of hate then find out why he's here or help me rescue my friends; one of which happens to be his own daughter."

Luke had pressed the right buttons. " Ok, I promise not to hurt the Tusken girl." Anakin surrendered, wincing at being referred to as 'Darth Vader' yet again.

" Great! " Luke chirped, " It's not like we're asking you to cuddle her, just tolerate her." he turned to Lennton. " Don't worry, I'll make sure that nothing happens to Onyx."

Anakin clasped a palm over his face. _Why me?_

" Your son is right you know," Lennton confirmed, " hatred is more Sith than Jedi. Shall I call in Onyx? Or do you need some more time to calm down? "

Anakin straightened. " I am calm. Go ahead." _Of all creatures, why did it have to be a Tusken Raider?_ It was like somebody's idea of a cruel joke.

Rising, Lennton crossed over to the door, opened it, and called out " Onyx! Onyx, I have a job for you! "

" Coming Lennton." A sweet little girl's voice came from off in another room. Moments later, Lennton backed away and a lively nine or ten year old girl with a cute red dress and flowing blonde hair bounced in, looking around eagerly. Her hazel eyes fell first upon the Skywalkers, then drifted down to settle on their lightsabers which were not at all hidden by the folds of their clothes.

" Onyx, this is Luke and Anakin. Luke and Anakin, Onyx."

Onyx curtsied politely. " Pleasure to meet you."

" Hi." Luke held a hand up in greeting, but Anakin remained motionless; staring straight ahead and off into space. His expression wasn't exactly pleasant.

Luke was clearly embarrassed by his father's rude behavior. " Never mind him. He's not the easiest person to get along with. Tends to shut people out." It was a slightly strange experience coming face-to-face with a Tusken child who wasn't wearing the usual attire of head-to-toe tattered rags and a weird-looking mask, and Lennton was right: Onyx looked completely like a normal human child and not like a Tusken Raider at all. Not that Luke had never seen a Tusken minus the mask, but he had been sure they probably wouldn't look too human.

Onyx nodded slightly, and both Jedi could sense her unease.

_Good. She **should** be scared of me. _Anakin thought, knowing the whole time that it was wrong to think that way, _I probably should try to think more positively though. It's thoughts like these that are going to make me Darth Vader if I'm not careful._

" They need you to guide them through the ancient caves to find Rajad and her people. Think you can do that? " Lennton asked sweetly, careful not to put the young Tusken on the spot.

Despite her apparent anxiety, Onyx nodded. " It would be an honor." She turned her attention to the Skywalkers. " I must warn you though--the caves are full of dangerous pits, deadly traps, and ferocious creatures. I think that's part of the reason the Senttians chose it as a safe haven. They don't normally like company."

" Sounds like fun." Luke said, expecting as much, " What do you think, Anakin? Up for a little action? "

" You bet." Anakin replied truthfully, hoping to see some action very, very soon. It would be worlds better than sitting in the back rooms of bars making small talk with weirdos and Tusken Raiders. _Besides, the sooner we find the Senttians, the sooner we won't need the Tusken Raider._ " Let's do this."

After saying their thank-yous goodbyes to Lennton, Anakin, Luke, and little Onyx strode out the front door of the station and were greeted by the sight of two uniformed law-officers coming straight at them.

" I'm sorry officers, is there a problem? " Luke asked.

" You bet." Said the first officer, pointing to Anakin, " The dug Janess says he beat her up and then strung her up a sign-post by her under-garments."

" Anakin! " Luke gushed, barely stifling a laugh. _Her under-garments? That's rude…and also funny!_

Anakin held both hands up in front of the cops in a time-out gesture, " Whoa, hold on. I did not _beat _anyone up! The sign-post, well…" His guilty grin betrayed him, " It was her fault! She went up and kicked my landspeeder for no reason! "

Luke shook his head. " You mean _my _landspeeder. Oh great. My insurance on that thing expired weeks ago."

" Ah, really? " The first officer sounded excited.

" Look, it was all just a big accident…"

" Yes, there are always accidents when your species are involved." An all-to-familiar voice that Anakin remembered from the past announced.

An older, withered-up looking dug who had clearly seen better years came up, giving Anakin _the evil eye._

Sebulba! Anakin's mind raced, _It's Sebulba!_

" You! You're going to have a lot to answer for, messing with my granddaughter! " Sebulba sneered, making his feeling on the matter painfully obvious. Then his eyes fell on Anakin's lightsaber, and he changed his tune almost automatically. " I mean…misunderstandings can happen, right? " He was backing away now, much to the Skywalkers' relief, " Forget about it, officers. We'll all just chalk it up to a big misunderstanding."

Now the officers noticed the lightsabers. " What do you know? Jedi. And here I thought I'd seen the last of them."

" We're kinda in a hurry, if you don't mind." Luke revealed, waving his hand slightly and using the Force to plant the suggestion in the first officer's mind, " Why don't you just get back to your duties and we'll pretend none of this ever happened? "

The first officer blinked, then turned to his partner. " He's right. We have more pressing matters to attend."

" Affirmative." With that, the two law-officers turned and headed back to their patrol vehicles, clearly not interested in dealing with Jedi.

By this time Sebulba had completely disappeared from view--probably hiding behind the station.

Luke grinned. " Works like a charm."

" I'll bet they would've ran even faster if they knew who I really was." Anakin mused, " I know that dug. His name is Sebulba. He lost the Boonta Eve Podrace to me when I was just nine. Of course, judging by his reaction just know, I don't think he recognized me."

" For both our sakes, let's hope no one else does."

They reached the landspeeder--still parked by the gas-spigot, and Luke scowled at the dents in the side. " What'd you do to get her so mad? "

" Oh, so you automatically assume _I_ had something to do with it? " Anakin defended.

Luke ran a finger over the dents, frowning. " Well, dugs generally don't go around kicking people's landspeeders unless they think they have a reason. And given your history…"

" I don't know what her problem was." Anakin cut in, " Wait a minute…yes I do. She's Sebulba's granddaughter. That whole family thinks they're the all-time greatest beings to grace the universe."

" At least none of them turned Sith." Luke glanced at the landspeeder, then down to young Onyx who was standing closely by his side, and his worries intensified. He wouldn't feel comfortable driving with Anakin and Onyx right behind him and out of sight. Recipe for disaster. But steering would be next to impossible with her sitting in _front_ of him. Handy as landspeeders were, they were not designed for family commute. It was going to be a crowded situation as it was.

There was only one solution. A scary solution.

" Anakin, why don't you do the driving, and Onyx can sit between us in the middle? "

" You sound nervous. I gave my word that I would not harm her. Don't you trust me? " Anakin purred with an almost evil undercurrent to his voice.

Even though he truly meant to keep his promise, it came off sounding akin to a cat asking to be trusted with a mouse.

" No." Luke said bluntly.

Anakin was not at all offended by his son's lack of trust. " Okay then. I'll drive."

Luke waited until Anakin was seated comfortably in the front, then helped Onyx up behind him before climbing on himself. _Now I'll be able to keep an eye on her._

But he was still a little worried--of the few things Obi had told him about his father, his love for speed had been mentioned. More than once. _I hope I know what I'm doing._

Anakin turned the motor, and the machine sprang to life.

" Better hold onto something." Luke cautioned Onyx in a low voice, " I've heard he likes to go fast."

Onyx looked around for something to hold, but the only thing available was Anakin's torso. Gently, _very_ gently, she gripped his sides, and the landspeeder took off with a loud 'whoosh'.

" Which way? " Anakin asked, doing his best to ignore Onyx's touch. Buildings and people sped by in a blur as he masterfully wove in and out of traffic and away from the city, breaking every traffic law on the planet.

" Head North," Onyx supplied, coughing a bit as some hot sand flew up into her nose and mouth, " Towards the big gully with the ridge."

Following instructions, Anakin started North and floored the accelerator as if he were in a podrace, scaring the wits out of both Onyx and Luke.

_And I thought Han was a crazy driver. _" Watch out for the banthas! " Luke warned even as the hearty desert-creatures crossed into their path along a narrow trail.

" Relax, I know what I'm doing." Anakin replied calmly, making a bunch of insane wild swerves around banthas that nearly threw his passengers from their seats.

" Good because I don't! " Luke complained, grasping some support beams at the side of the speeder for dear life, " You're going to get us killed! "

" Aw, come on, you sound like Master Obi. My driving isn't _that _bad."

An enormous sandworm reared up seemingly out of nowhere just then, forcing Anakin to veer right at such a sharp angle it nearly threw him _and_ his passengers.

" Stupid gravel maggot! " He cursed, " Out of my way! "

_Yes, that's good advice, _Luke thought, _whether you happen to be a gravel maggot, sandworm, bantha, innocent bystander…_

" That ridge over there? " Anakin pointed to a ridge a good few miles off in the distance; raising up from the sands like an ominous red-orange temple.

" Yes." Onyx wheezed, struggling to catch her breath. _Thank the stars it's not very far away!_ Any more time riding with Anakin and she was sure she'd go completely crazy.

Much to Luke's relief, nothing else seemed to be stirring out in the open.

They were almost halfway there when the engine started sputtering and slowing down.

" What's wrong? " Luke asked when the engine finally died and the speeder slowed to a complete stop out in the middle of the desert.

Anakin frowned, studying the gauges. " Luke, how much gas did you put in before we left? " He cast an accusing eye over his shoulder to his son.

" Gas? Didn't you put any in? " Luke replied sheepishly. _Duh! How could I have been so forgetful!_

" Me? I thought you did! "

Luke turned away shame-faced, feeling like the dumbest idiot in Stupidville. " Ah…well I…with everything that was happening, I guess I just forgot. I'm sorry. We'll have to walk the rest of the way."


	5. The Evil Puddle

**Chapter 5**

The 2 ½ mile walk to the ridge was not the stuff of dreams. The suns were hot, the ground was hot, the air was hot, and the wind was a vicious warlord whose weapon of choice was the stinging sand it hurtled into the faces of it's foes. Excluding the town they had just left, nothing but baked, red-orange landscape could be seen in any given direction for miles. Dead ahead, looming ever larger in view behind the deep gully, was the rough, jagged, sinister form of a rocky outcropping known to the locals as '_Inferno Ridge_'. Standing a mere five or six stories tall, it wasn't a particularly large formation, but in contrast to the almost table-flat surface of the Tatooine badlands it stuck out like a giant ruddy-red mountain. Not that the desert world had many 'good' lands, but the badlands were an especially harsh environment. Here water, food, and shelter were in painfully short supply, leaving any who dared set foot into this blistering wasteland at the mercy of the scorching suns and violent winds. Sandstorms were more frequent here than any other region of the planet, and the rugged, rocky soil was too dry to support even the hardiest plant life. Thus it made sense that few beings however fit or well-adapted cared to venture out into this hostile territory.

__

Well, at least we'll be able to see anyone coming well in advance. Anakin thought with somewhat forced optimism. For anyone but Obi-Wan Kenobi, focusing on the positive was a lot harder than it sounded. _Obi...I wonder how he managed without me? _ Now that his mind had started down that path, scenario after scenario presented itself, and most of them weren't pleasant.

One of his favorite ideas was that perhaps time had frozen for everyone back in the past. Obi-Wan, Padmé, Count Dooku, the droids...all frozen in time, unable to move or think until he returned and the universe righted itself.

Then again, that might not be the case.

Never one to dwell long on positive thoughts, Anakin's mind was quick to dive right into the sea of negativity, and he found himself getting worried and anxious all over again. There was no sense in denying it--Count Dooku had clearly been winning the fight. He could all too easily picture the white-haired Sith lord's evil leer as he raised his crimson lightsaber, ready to lay into a helpless...

" Yoda."

Anakin blinked in confusion. " Huh? "

Luke rolled his eyes. " What's tiny, green, and has two pointy ears? It's Yoda. Doesn't take a master droid to figure that one out." He sent his father a that-was-too-obvious look. " C'mon, that wasn't even a challenge. Now it's my turn."

The blonde-haired padawan turned to face his son with a generally bewildered expression. After a second's pause, he found the words he'd been searching for. " Oh. Okay."

That was right--the game. He'd been so caught up worrying about his friends back in the past that he'd almost forgotten. Having nothing better to do to pass the time on the walk to the Senttian lair, he and Luke had decided to play the '_Guess-Who Guess-What'_ game along the way, since neither liked awkward silence and neither felt all that comfortable discussing the past or Jedi business around Onyx.

They were walking side-by-side now, with Anakin to the far left, Onyx to the far right, and Luke in the middle. It wasn't an arrangement they'd verbally agreed upon, but rather the product of Anakin's distaste for Tuskens, Onyx's distrust of Anakin, and Luke's instinct to place himself between the two for harmony's sake.

As much as Luke liked to think that Anakin would never hurt a child--even a former Tusken Raider child--it was just so hard to forget that Anakin was merely a younger version of Darth Vader. The fact that this Darth Vader was not wearing a black helmet was irrelevant. It was still the same guy who had killed Ben, kidnapped Leia, blown up a planet, chopped off his hand, and tried to turn him to the Dark Side. And those were only the atrocities that he _knew _about. Who knew what other crimes Vader had committed in between?

Now that he thought about it, evidence even seemed support the idea that Anakin had had something to do with the fall of the Jedi. Which he may very well have.

No. For as much as Luke would love to be able to completely trust his father, he just couldn't. Anakin may be aligned with the forces of good right now, but who knew how long that would last? The man was a loose cannon.

Drawing a breath, he continued, " I'm thinking of something short and furry with two legs and..."

Anakin didn't even give him time to finish. " Sandworm! "

" Sandworm! " Luke couldn't believe it, " Have the suns fried your brain? Since when are sandworms shor..."

" No," Anakin drew his lightsaber, a wild spark of something primal in his eye, " sandworm! "

By the time Luke noticed the upward explosion of ground under his feet, he and Onyx were already riding on the back of aforementioned sandworm's neck. Only Anakin had managed to dodge aside in time; a fact that was surprising given the suddenness with which the event had occurred and his overall closeness to the giant worm's rotund body.

" Yiiiiii! " Onyx yelped in surprise.

" Aaaah! " Luke agreed.

Both struggled wildly to hold on to the cool, slippery skin as the giant rose ten, twenty, thirty feet into the air.

" Mrrraaaarrp! " The monster's roar shook the sky. Black gelatin eyes were quick to lock on to the neon-blue blaze of Anakin's lightsaber as it activated. Barely capable of any mental processes resembling thought, the gritty orange superworm did not interpret the sizzling blade or the creature wielding it as danger. All it knew was that it was hungry, and the creature below with the flashy thing looked like a tasty bite-sized morsel. Crushing mandibles capable of snapping a landspeeder in half pulled apart to reveal a large hole filled with circular rows of gnashing teeth. Then the monstrous invertebrate dived down, intending to snap it's prey up in one quick bite.

_Sorry, not my plan. _Anakin jumped aside at the last second and the overgrown maggot got a mouthful of burning dirt for it's efforts. _Perfect. _Seizing the moment, he twirled around, brought his lightsaber up over the creature's head, and...

" Anakin! Stop! "

...came frighteningly close to slicing Luke down the middle.

Shortly after the sandworm had reared it's ugly head, the other Skywalker had somehow managed to get a firm enough grip to make a jump and propel himself to the top of that bumpy gourd. Now he had a blue lightsaber frozen inches in front of his face; so close he could actually feel the heat emanating off the blade.

Without missing a beat, Anakin twirled the weapon away from his son and slashed a burning gash in the side of Superworm's head.

" Mrreeeeeeeeioour! " The air shook with the beast's cry of agony. Driven to an enraged frenzy, it thrashed, rolled, and jerked it's head about fiercely in a wild display of pain and fury. The two uninvited passengers who had wound up on it's head and back were dislodged and landed unceremoniously in the dirt. Oblivious, Superworm continued in it's death throes; it's brain shutting down, it's senses fading. Through rapidly dimming vision, it spotted the creature responsible for it's demise: the seemingly harmless prey it had intended to eat. Gnashing it's teeth, it lunged one final time.

Anakin dived aside in plenty of time and the beast's head collided brutally with the ground.

_Serves it right. _The blonde-haired padawan thought, feeling a little cheated because the fight had ended so quickly. For some reason, he'd been hoping it'd be more of a challenge. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Luke and Onyx rising up out of the sand. A good thing nobody had been hurt.

Save Mr. Sandworm, of course.

As the trio watched, it's massive body twitched once, twice, and then went slack. Glossy black eyes dulled and lost their fire. The monster was finally dead.

Anakin deactivated his lightsaber.

" Are you alright? " Luke rushed to Onyx's side. The child was shaken, but other than that appeared none the worse for wear.

" I'll be alright. Just a bump." She shivered despite the total lack of cold, " I don't like those giant worms."

" Neither do I." To further punctuate his point, Anakin went over and kicked the body in the side for good measure. " Sandworms. One thing I _didn't _miss about this planet."

" They are dangerous," Luke agreed, wiping sand off his face, " but then, so are you when you're trying to stop them."

" Hey," Anakin returned with a guilty smile, " I stopped, didn't I? Jedi reflexes. I don't slice someone up unless I intend to."

" That's not really a comforting thought." Luke mumbled quietly. An instant later and he would've been, as his old mentor liked to put it, '_One with the force.' _No wonder old Ben had had so many gray hairs. Between his driving and his fighting techniques Anakin could shave years off a person's life.

Speaking of Ben, supposing this Anakin returned to his time frame and supposing everything else went right, what then? Would things change or was history doomed to repeat itself? _What if Anakin never became Darth Vader?_

A tempting thought, but not very plausible.

At the moment, Anakin was glaring at Onyx. Though his expression wasn't downright evil, it was hostile enough to cause the former Tusken child to wilt and shrink back behind Luke.

_Who am I kidding?_

This Anakin may still have all his body parts intact, but he was already showing signs of slipping over to the dark side. The way things were looking now, it wouldn't be long at all until he was donning that black helmet and body suit. It was a morbid fate, but one which he couldn't escape.

_Or is it? _A small spark of hope still refused to dislodge itself from the back of Luke's mind. Again, he wondered what this Rajad being wanted to see them about. Perhaps it really was possible to undo the past to make things...different. Better.

As if sensing his thoughts, Anakin cast his gaze to the side and exhaled quietly, his expression softening. Without looking up, he nodded mechanically, as much as to assure himself of what he was about to say as his two companions.

" Sorry. I've...this hasn't been easy for me." He started off for Inferno Ridge, " C'mon, let's see what this Rajad wants, and if she knows how to get me back to my own timeline."

Onyx waited until Anakin was far ahead and presumably out of earshot before turning to Luke and whispering, " He seems kind of grumpy."

" Grumpy? Him? Nah." Luke laughed softly, sending her a playful wink, " He does have a good side. All you need to do is find it and get on it."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Twenty minutes later found the Skywalkers and their Tusken guide standing at the foot of the infamous Inferno Ridge. The gully had been easy enough to cross--a prior visitor had been kind enough to erect a bridge--and now the challenge was where to go from here. Jutting a good five stories straight up, the ridge was crisscrossed with several crevices and craigs, but nothing to indicate the presence of an opening of any sort. Tiny insects and reptiles skittered along the hot rocks, caught up in the perpetual game of survival.

Anakin studied the cliff-face with the same careful scrutiny as he would a machine that needed fixing. That secret entrance had to be around here somewhere. He turned to Onyx.

" Alright. Now what? " In spite of his mounting anxieties and contempt for the young Tusken, he managed to keep his tone a shade above annoyed.

Onyx was already feeling along the base of the ridge. " A hidden lever that looks like a rock will open up the passage into the underground caverns."

Anakin and Luke looked down. There were an awful lot of rocks laying around. Finding the lever could take all day at this rate.

Anakin started off to the left. No particular reason, really--he just wanted to put a little bit of distance between himself, his son, and the Tusken child. " I'll check over here."

Luke hurried to the right and began fingering the larger-sized rocks along the base. " What's this rock supposed to look like? Does it have a special shape, or a special color...anything that could help us find it faster? "

Onyx wiggled a medium-sized rock that bore a peculiar resemblance to an ewok before moving on to the next. " I don't know...it's..." Her eyes darted around the rockbed, confusion worrying her youthful features. She wished she'd paid more attention to the elders when they'd discussed these types of things. " It's here _somewhere_."

Anakin rolled his eyes. _Typical Tusken. No wonder they're extinct. _Half of the ones he'd slaughtered back in the camp had actually been foolish enough to stay and try to fight him off. Right. Like they'd ever even stood the ghost of chance against a well-trained Jedi of his skill. Oh sure, some had tried to run...

__

Stop thinking about it, Anakin mentally scolded himself, _What's done is done. There's no point in dwelling in the past. _ That was what Obi always said, and, for the most part, it was good advice to follow.

Except that it was pretty hard _not_ to dwell in the past when you found yourself magically thrust into the future. Probably not too many Jedi had ever had that experience.

" Aha! " Luke exclaimed when the rock he'd been moving suddenly beeped and a chunk of ground opened up to reveal an earthen stairway descending into shadow.

Onyx's eyes lit up. " That's the one! " Beaming, she hurried down the steps with Luke and Anakin in hot pursuit. The heavily camouflaged door snapped closed behind them, plunging the vicinity into complete darkness.

" Hey! I can't see a thing down here! " Luke complained. Each step was a guess, and he worried he would trip into their child guide.

" There'll be light at the end of the stairs." Onyx promised.

Thankfully, Luke was a Jedi, and as such had the force on his side. Remembering this, he shut his eyes ( not that he could see anything anyway--it just helped with concentration ) and allowed himself to relax; the force guiding his movements.

Sadly, the force wasn't with Anakin. In his rush to get to the bottom of the steps, he overestimated the speed of his companions and stepped on Luke's heel.

" Ow! " His concentration broken, Luke tripped forward and nearly fell over the next step. Out of instinct--or perhaps revenge--he reached back and grabbed Anakin, who was by that point almost standing on top of him.

" Hey! What are you..."

Sounds of a scuffle could be heard as both men struggled for balance and came dangerously close to _tumbling_ the rest of the way down the stairs.

" Are you two okay? " Onyx's concerned voice rose up from somewhere below.

" Yeah," Luke called in her direction, simultaneously bracing himself against the wall and jerking his foot free from under Anakin's boot, " Keep going." His next words were aimed at Anakin. " Hasn't Ben...I mean, Obi-Wan, taught you to use the force yet? "

" Sorry! " Anakin's apology sounded more like a hiss, " If you hadn't been moving so slowly..."

" Forget it." Luke surrendered wearily, not in the mood to argue, " Let's just concentrate on getting down these steps, okay? "

Anakin was just as happy to let it slide. Though he would rather a bantha sit on him than admit it, he was a little embarrassed about having forgotten to use the force when circumstances so clearly called for it.

_Light!_

At the end of the steps, a dim, warm glow illuminated an open cavern. A very _large _cavern. Stalactites hung from the roof like swords waiting to fall. A number of chasms split the sandy floor like open wounds; their gaping maws yawning into a shadow-filled abyss. A few shallow pools of water collected on the grounds around these monsters. Where above everything had been dry and hot, down here everything was dank and cool.

The three travelers welcomed the drop in temperature as they took in these new surroundings.

" Well, this is interesting." Anakin noted, fixing his eyes on the several golden-yellow orbs floating up between the stalactites and lighting the area like miniature suns, " I've been to a lot of different planets, but I've never seen lights like these used in a cavern."

" But you _have _seen them before? " Luke asked, unsure weather this was a good thing or a bad thing. A shimmering pool of water caught his attention, and he went over to examine it.

" Yeah." Taking his eyes off the orbs, Anakin swept past Onyx to join Luke's side. " A new technology being developed by the Moskans. They're called microstars. This being the future, they obviously figured out how to stabilize them and fix them in one place." The memory of that mission resurfaced, and now he began to laugh, " When Obi and I first encountered them it was because we were trapped in a room full of them and they were flying around everywhere. It was..." he paused, searching for the right word, " intense."

" Sounds like it." Luke peered over into the pool and was greeted by his own image glinting off the reflective surface of the calm water. Out of impulse, he patted back his tasseled blond hair into a more flattering fashion. He didn't know why--it wasn't like he was going on a date or anything. As he was doing this, another face appeared in the water; this one highlighted with blue eyes and short, sandy-blond hair sporting a padawan braid.

" We don't look _too_ much alike." Anakin observed.

Luke bent over closer and squinted at the reflections. " Eh, a little. Though I'd always pictured you as having lighter hair." He stood up.

" Really? " The padawan mused. _Why would he think that?_

Anakin was too busy admiring his reflection to notice when Luke slipped away. Two things he'd always prided himself in were his skill and his looks, only, thanks to Jedi code, all the priding had to be done silently. Obi-Wan frowned on such things. He didn't see why. Nobody else gave him the praise he deserved...certainly not the Council.

He rubbed a hand under his chin, pleased to see that not a single mark blemished his features. _Dooku never even scratched me. _He smiled to himself, forgetting all about what would've happened to his right arm had a greater force not intervened, _I'm really beyond him..._

_-Flash-_

The image in the water changed suddenly and without warning. Now, instead of his own baby blues, black eye visors radiated an evil, icy glare from beneath an even blacker helmet. An ebony gloved hand reached up to...

__

Anakin jumped back, barely stifling a cry. " What is _that! _" He pointed a trembling hand to the water, unable to explain the sudden onslaught of fear flooding his sensory.

Luke and Onyx darted to the poolside in an instant.

" What is what? " Luke blinked back at his own reflection, trying and failing to find the cause of his father's alarm. As far as he could see, the water wasn't behaving in any suspicious way. The surface was as still as a polished mirror, and just as reflective. " Anakin, there's nothing here." Just to be sure, he reached out with the force and felt...nothing.

Even so, instinct told him not to fully dismiss his father's claim. Anakin didn't strike him as the type to jump at shadows.

" What? It was just there! " This time when he looked in the water, all Anakin saw were the bewildered faces of Luke, Onyx, and himself staring back at him. No creepy black helmet.

__

Why is that setting off alarms? Something was wrong here. He was beginning to get that nervous, jumpy feeling he always got when he felt he was missing something important.

" But..."

Luke shook his head, " There's nothing there." He caught Anakin's gaze, the hint of concern flickering across his face, " What did you see? "

Anakin swallowed the lump rising in his throat. Jedi were supposed to be fearless. This wasn't fitting the bill. He tried looking at it from the logical perspective. _Me, leaping at a black helmet. How embarrassing._

" Nothing," he lied, calming his voice, " Must have been a trick of the light."

Luke arched an eyebrow in suspicion, but quickly let it drop. _Poor guy's been through enough already. He'll tell me later if it's important._

Onyx, too, knew better than to press. Turning away from the pool, she started down a narrow tunnel lit by more of the glowing microstars. " C'mon. I remember hearing about these tunnels. This is the safe way." There was a brief pause. " I hope."

" Guess we'll find out." Luke followed her at a slower pace. When he didn't hear Anakin's footsteps behind him, he glanced back to see his young father still standing by the pool; glaring at it with extreme distrust.

" You coming? "

" Be there in a moment." Anakin said without looking up.

Luke almost laughed. _He's so suspicious of that puddle of water! Now I know he saw something, but what? _That was a story that would have to wait for another time. The more time they wasted down here the less time Leia, Han, and Chewie might have. Turning back around, he followed Onyx's lead down the mysterious tunnel.

Anakin took a second longer to act. " That puddle is evil." He whispered quietly before turning and catching up to the others.

****


	6. Alternate Universes, Alternate Realities

__

**Chapter 6**

" Onyx, are you sure this is the right way? I thought these caverns were supposed to be guarded and full of traps." Anakin's patience was wearing thin. At this rate they'd see Rajad next year; if they were lucky.

Luke beat Onyx to the reply, " What, you're complaining because we _haven't_ run into any crazed creatures or deadly traps? Yep, you're the Anakin old Ben was telling me about. Always ready for action."

" It's a lot better than wandering around aimlessly through some ancient Tusken cavern. We don't even know what this, this _Rajad _looks like."

" Lennton said she can take any form she wants." Luke replied with a small shrug, " She seems to know a lot about us, so my guess is she'll take a non-threatening form we'll both be familiar with."

" That would make sense."

The trio continued down the tunnel in silence with Onyx in the lead. It was by no means a wide passage--just barely big enough to allow Luke and Anakin to walk shoulder-to-shoulder had they felt so inclined. The air was warm and stagnant. What scant light existed came from tiny microstars placed at odd intervals. At times it was difficult to ascertain which direction they were heading, but as the walk progressed all three began to notice a gradual downward decline; as if they were walking down a ramp.

_Into the belly of the beast._

Anakin shivered despite the total lack of cold. It had been well over twenty minutes now since his encounter with what he inwardly labeled '_The Evil Puddle'_, yet there was no shaking that image from his mind. The thing in the black helmet reaching out for him, reaching forward with...

_Mustn't think about it_, Anakin mentally scolded himself, _Whatever that thing was, I can't let it have that kind of power_ _over me. Obi wouldn't get jumpy over some mirage in a puddle. It's just a trick. A trick intended to rattle my nerves--_the image flashed through his mind again with terrifying clarity--_and it's doing a good job of it._

Why did that vision fill him with such a profound fear? What the heck was so scary about a man in a black helmet? _He was reaching for me..._

Doing his best to calm himself, Anakin made another attempt to erase the image from memory. Failed.

Something about that scary phantom in black disturbed him on a level few things could. The thing in the puddle felt close, somehow. Personal. Familiar in a way he couldn't quite put his finger on. The alarm bells tolled in his head.

__

What does it mean?

" I don't suppose you're going to tell me what you saw back there? " Luke pried, sensing something amiss.

The padawan shook his head, a gesture which went largely unseen in the stifling darkness of the underground passage. " No...don't worry about it, it wasn't anything...probably just a trick of the light. Like I said earlier."

The other Jedi arched an eyebrow in suspicion, and Anakin knew his son didn't really believe him. Normal people didn't get all weird over illusions, let alone Jedi. He was feeling edgy and it was starting to show.

He caught Luke's eye. " I'll be fine."

" I hope so." Luke sounded concerned, " Whatever Rajad has to tell us, I have a feeling it's very important. Especially if it involved plucking you out of your timeline. Something big must be happening."

_Something big **is** happening, _Anakin thought privately, _and I don't like it a bit._

If this _was_ his second chance to get it right, it was probably the only chance he'd get. What if he messed up? What if he failed everyone? Obi-Wan, Padmé, the Jedi Council...what would become of them if he slipped up this second time? He would rather lose his right arm than become Darth Vader, but what if there was no way out of it?

__

No. I refuse to believe that--there **has** to be a way. Obi's words echoed through his mind, _There is always a way._

It always came so easy for him. Always so easy for master Obi-Wan Kenobi to shut out his doubts, his fears, his feelings. Anakin wished he could do the same.

The end of the tunnel was finally in sight. The light up ahead was perhaps a third brighter than it was in here, though, let's be honest, it wasn't exactly perfect reading light. Onyx led the way out into a large cavern not unlike the first one they'd been through. This cavern had a few less pools, though water still dripped from the stalactites above. A tiny fleet of microstars hovered among these rocky protrusions near the ceiling; their combined luminosity bathing the vicinity in a sort of soft, primordial glow. The area spread out before them was almost perfectly circular in shape with only two tunnels to choose from.

" Which way? " Luke asked patiently.

The young child who had found herself thrust into the role of Tusken tour-guide was uncertain. She'd been through these tunnels once before with her mother, but that had been a long time ago and time dimmed the memory. She eyed first one tunnel, then the other.

Anakin bit back a snide remark.

Why was it again that they needed this child?

So far she hadn't made any decisions that he and Luke couldn't have made on their own.

Onyx glanced back to Luke and was rewarded with a reassuring nod. " Take your time," he encouraged, " better safe than sorry. Think. Do you remember anything about this area? "

The little girl turned her gaze back on the tunnels. Glittery hazel eyes drifted over cavern walls. " This place is set up like a maze. The elders did it that way to disorient and disorganize intruders. We must be going the right way since we haven't run into any monsters or traps. Either that or the Senttians got rid of them when they moved in."

Anakin looked almost disappointed about that.

Onyx took a breath and continued, " There should be some writing somewhere..._there_! "

Anakin and Luke followed their child guide over to a section of wall covered with small reddish-brown inscriptions. The symbols appeared at least a decade old and were not of a style either Skywalker was familiar with.

Anakin frowned. " What's this? "

" It's Tusken Raider _kaja_," Onyx supplied, " writing. " She was careful not to meet Anakin's gaze, " it was..." she squinted at a symbol to the far-left--a symbol that reminded Luke of an old-fashioned scythe, " ...written a long time ago. Twenty, maybe twenty-five years. I can't be certain--whoever wrote it was in a hurry and not too concerned with legible penmanship."

" What does it say? " Luke pressed, leaning in to get a better view.

Onyx traced a delicate finger along a pattern of symbols arranged in a loose 'V' formation. Her eyelids fluttered. " It says that there was a great massacre, a great loss. Many died. There was..." she paused, eyes gliding effortlessly over symbols and inscriptions that would have taken her companions a good interpreter droid like C-3PO to translate.

Once, twice, she looked up at Anakin; a fearful spark flashing through her wary eyes.

" What? What does it say? " Luke asked excitedly.

Onyx reached the end of the writing. Her eyes widened in complete, absolute fear.

In an instant Luke was at her side, taking her hand in his and kneeling down so as to be eye-level with the frightened child. " Come on," his voice was soft and reassuring, " what happened? "

Onyx turned a shade paler than normal. Backing all the way into Luke, she jabbed a shaky finger at Anakin, who wore a puzzled expression.

" Him! " Her voice trembled with fear, " He did it! The writing on the wall--it tells of a mad Jedi who went berserk and murdered every living thing in a Tusken camp not far from here. Men, women, even children and pets! "

Luke jerked back a few inches in surprise. He stared at Anakin as if he were a madman that might come unglued at any moment.

" What? Why act so surprised? " Anakin chuckled in an icy calm tone, " I thought you said I'd done a lot worse, Luke."

Luke shook his head. He looked as if he were going to be sick. Men were one thing, but women and children? Even _pets_? _Gees, no wonder everyone was so afraid of Darth Vader. If this is how he acted **before **he was evil_...he let that thought hang. Was aware of Onyx clinging to him tightly, never daring to let her gaze off the 'Mad Jedi'.

_Well, that went over like a Sith in the Jedi Council, _Anakin reflected wryly.

" They killed my mother." He stated simply, justifying his actions.

" Who did? " Luke shot back acidly, " Children? "

" They had it coming." Anakin's apathetic, uncaring expression didn't change.

So he'd killed a few Tuskens. So what? It wasn't like he'd _asked _them to abduct his mother and torture her to death. No, that had been their decision. Their call. They hadn't hesitated to beat her bloody--kill her--and then they had acted all surprised when her Jedi son had shown up to annihilate them all like so many vermin. Where was the injustice in that? _They brought it on themselves._

Hours. Only hours had passed since Shmi's final goodbye.

Or something close to twenty-five years, if one was going by the current timeline, which Anakin wasn't. The pain of loss was still fresh in his mind. What did Luke expect him to do, just get over it? Even Obi-Wan wasn't that good at putting all of his negative emotions into a little bottle to be safely buried away.

Luke only shook his head. This wasn't the time or place for an argument on ethics. They had a mission. Besides, it wasn't as if he was going to be able to convince young Darth Vader that he'd done anything but the right thing. An attempt to do so would only complicate things between them. His heart went out to the Obi-Wan of the past. This verging-Sith padawan was like a ticking time bomb.

" What's done is done." He said coolly, " Let's just find Rajad."

Anakin's expression softened. It wasn't until he opened his hands to find imprints of his nails in his palms that he realized he'd been clenching his fists.

__

So much anger. The words glided through his mind, but he couldn't remember where he'd heard them.

Anger.

What did anger lead to again? Was it suffering, or the dark side of the force?

A single moment in his life, Anakin Skywalker had never been as confused as he was now. He'd crossed lines that, deep down, he knew shouldn't be crossed. He felt guilty about that--even a little disgusted. But being tossed into the future, confronted by his son, and completely overwhelmed with a ton of negative information hadn't exactly done wonders for his mood or mental health. _Still, _his hopes argued weakly, _this is just one possible future, one possible scenario. Maybe I can work this out. Get a happy ending._

Well, as happy of an ending as one _could_ get with his track record and all. It was definitely worth a try. What future could be worse than this one? Padmé was dead, and he'd turned to the dark side and killed everyone who had ever meant anything to him. Then he'd died himself. Any changes he could make to _that_ grim story could only be for the better.

He felt some of his anger subside. The past wasn't important now, only the future.

" Alright," he breathed, " let's go talk to this Rajad."

Luke flashed Onyx a small smile. " See? He's not _completely _unreasonable. A little moody, but, hey, everyone's entitled to a bad day, right? "

Onyx's response was a incredulous blink.

" Okay then," Luke said awkwardly, rising up from the kneeling-position, " which tunnel? "

While Luke and Onyx were figuring things out, Anakin went over and stood in the entryway of the tunnel to the right. Shutting his eyes briefly, he reached out with the force and tried to sense if this was the right way. The sensation didn't come too strongly, but a gut feeling told him this was probably the way to go. He was just about to suggest the tunnel when Onyx picked it.

" This way. The wall-writing strongly suggests that this is the way we should go. See that symbol there? " She pointed to a marking that looked like a cross halfway between a 't' and a 'd', " That's either the kaja for 'right' or 'search'. I'm pretty sure it's right though. I mean, search wouldn't make sense."

" Alright. The right it is." Luke had to give her credit--the girl had nerve. Scared as she had been only moments ago, she'd been able to pull through and stay on task. She still kept a distrusting eye on Anakin, but for the most part she seemed to have calmed down to a manageable level.

Even Anakin was behaving--while he didn't attempt to hid the fact that he was not particularly fond of Onyx, at least he was keeping his feelings under control. That was good.

Perhaps they'd be able to co-exist peacefully for a little while longer.

-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-

Ten minutes later found Skywalkers and Tusken child in a dimly-lit area about the size of a large living room. The place was earthen, closed-in, and completely nondescript save the lone microstar hovering at the back near the wall.

" Dead end." Luke thought aloud, though his inner instincts told him not to dismiss the area so quickly.

Anakin, too, felt it. The living force was strong in this particular room. There was something more here.

Onyx gave Luke an apologetic look. " Sorry. I was sure this was..."

A shimmer! 

A luminous glow directly in the air under the microstar!

The rest of Onyx's words died in her throat. As she and her company watched, this ethereal disturbance blossomed into a brilliant point of blue-tinged white light. Faster and faster it grew--first it was the size of a small coin, then a dinner plate, then R2-D2. All in the space of about two seconds.

Father and son blinked.

For a split-second, the thing just hung there: a swirling, radiant mass of pure energy. Then it began to condense, congeal, and take shape.

At first it looked like a midget. Two small arms. Two short legs. Tiny body. The air was alive with crackling tendrils, all whipping and jerking about wildly in the air. Currents of electricity shot up from the still-forming lower body to form the head: a small triangular shape mounted on a child-sized body.

Just as quickly as it had flared up, the energy died down. The newly-formed creature lost it's glow as everywhere on it's body blue-white electricity cooled into earthy-brown fabric. The pointy head became the hood of a cloak from under which two tiny, bright-yellow points of light popped into existence from the middle of a sea of black.

Half a second later, and the transformation was complete.

No more living light.

Now Luke, Anakin, and Onyx found themselves faced with a pretty normal-looking jawa female no bigger than a human child.

" Rajad? " Luke was first to ask.

The jawa bowed it's head once. " Yes."

" You're a jawa? " Anakin laughed playfully, the ghost of a smile forming at the corner of his mouth.

" I chose this form to appear to you in. I needed something humble. Something that would not evoke feelings of awe, or fear, or any other strong emotion in you. Something non-threatening."

" Good choice." Luke noted.

" Thank you." Despite her physique, there was nothing remotely jawa-like about Rajad's voice. It was soft and feminine, but not without an inner strength.

_Sort of, _Anakin imagined, _like a much softer version of the way Padmé talks. _Unless Padmé was angry. Then she wasn't as soft-spoken.

Rajad turned her jawa gaze to Onyx. " Thank you, Onyx." She replied in that same milk-and-cookies-warm tone, " Very brave of you to lead them here. I forgot to tell Lennton that I made the area visitor-friendly. I'm sorry for any anxieties this may have caused."

Onyx blushed a little. " It's alright. Actually, the scariest thing in the caverns was him." She tilted her chin in Anakin's direction. " There was this whole passage on the wall about him and his Laser-Sword of Death."

A spark of something akin to glee lit up Anakin's eye. He could not suppress his grin. " Really? They really called my lightsaber a_ Laser Sword of Death_? "

Onyx chewed her lower lip nervously. " Well, yeah. Among other things. You really put the fear of God into them."

Anakin's laughter was silenced with a disapproving glare form Luke.

_Busted. _The Great Tusken Killer looked down at the ground. There were just some people he couldn't share his feelings with. Lately that number had been on the rise.

" The Tuskens that managed to survive your rampage told the tale to all their friends and before long nearly the entire species feared you." Rajad told Anakin, " You made quite the impression."

Anakin said nothing, but inside he couldn't help but to feel a certain measure of satisfaction at having dished out such a momentous act of revenge. They got what they deserved.

Rajad's next words, however, sent a nice chill up his spine. " I trust Luke has already brought you up to speed? That was your first step toward becoming Darth Vader."

Anakin didn't like that. Not one bit. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words would come out. _What am I going to say? That I enjoyed the slaughter? That revenge is a dish best served by me? That I want to become the most powerful Jedi ever? _Impulsive and hotheaded maybe, but Anakin was no fool. Rajad was right and the truth wasn't pretty. Dress it up however you liked, Jedi did not go on mass-murdering revenge sprees. Period.

" So you were the one who brought me here? " He asked, careful to keep his tone calm and non-threatening.

" Yes," Rajad admitted, " I was the one who plucked you out of your timeline, out of your battle with Count Dooku. Don't worry--whatever alternate reality is created in the past in your absence will be undone once you return."

" When will that be? "

" It depends." Since Jawa faces were hidden by blackness, their emotions had to be conveyed through their eyes and tone of voice alone.

Luke thought she sounded just a little uncertain. " Depends on what? " He asked before Anakin could.

Now there was definitely uncertainty in Rajad's voice. " On when you complete your mission."

" Whoa whoa whoa, hold on, hold on." Luke said, " Lennton said you knew where Han, Leia, and Chewie went. This mission has something to do with them, right? "

Rajad nodded slowly. " Yes. It does. I'm afraid there's a lot at stake here, Jedi. I didn't yank padawan Anakin over there out of his climatic battle just for my amusement."

" That's good to hear." Anakin, of course.

" And like it or not, Luke, your sister and friends are caught up in this too." Rajad went on as if Anakin had not interrupted, " It's like this: we Senttians, as you may or may not know, are a highly evolved race of mystics. We've been around for almost a hundred-million years, and have remained almost unchanged for much of that time. We are a peaceful people dedicated to the pursuit of higher understanding. We visit other worlds to learn. To watch. To help when we can. We are strictly nonviolent and try as much as possible not to directly interfere in the lives of other sentient beings." She paused. Let that sink in.

When none of her guests offered any further input, she continued. " The thing you must understand about space and time is that they are interconnected. Think of them as the invisible twine which makes up the fabric of the universe. Since your civilization is already capable of faster-than-light travel, I'm sure you know that space is curved and that traveling-time to other star systems and galaxies can be greatly reduced by cutting the corners and folding space through certain areas. But did you know that there are also other _universes _out there, other dimensions and realities? "

" There are? " Luke wasn't quite sure yet what any of this had to do with his missing companions, but it was an amazing revelation and Rajad had his full attention. " How many? "

" Impossible to say," Rajad kept up the same still-as-a-statue posture she had assumed since arriving, " most likely the number is infinite. Many realities can exist simultaneously side by side. For every event that's ever happened, for every thought you've ever thought, there's a thousand ways it could have gone differently. Even the tiniest, seemingly insignificant events have a role to play in the construction of the reality you call yours. For example, Luke, there's an alternate universe out there where you didn't survive the attack on the first Death Star. I know, I've been there. Your decision to let the force guide you came an instant too late. There's a universe where the Jedi were wiped out early on, and one where they flourish. There's even a number of universes where Anakin never turned to the dark side. Those realities, of course, are vastly different from this one. There are ones more closely related. Space is teeming with infinite possibilities. I've only been through a very few of these alternate universes. Some are, obviously, more pleasant than others."

Luke thought he followed. " So these alternate universes are created simply by thoughts and actions alone? "

Rajad appeared thoughtful. " I don't presume to know what sparks an alternate universe. All I know is that many of the universes I have been to have been almost identical to each other save just a few details. In some cases, only one person is different. In other cases, only one _thing_. I'm going by guess here, but a logical presumption is that universes that are most similar to each other are in closer proximity to each other, if that makes sense. Also, it doesn't seem to be just a reality's inhabitants that shape it, but also facts. It's very mind-boggling, actually. But if you can dream it up, it's probably out there somewhere."

Luke nodded. " Interesting scheme, but where do we fit into all of it? "

Now, at last, Rajad moved. The almost comical jawa/Senttian paced the length of the room in a similar fashion to a caged animal in a zoo.

" Hundreds of thousands of years ago, when we Senttians were already capable of forward and backward travel through time, we developed a crystal which allowed us to travel to these alternate universes as well. It was a happy accident that we were able to achieve such a feat, and since then we have not been able to make another such crystal. The crystal, which we call the Cindray, is a soft, glowing pink in color, shaped like a diamond, and about the size of your hand. Let me make it clear that this crystal cannot, by itself, be used to travel backward and forward in time, nor can it be used to increase it's user's connection to the force like Palpatine's Kyber crystal. It won't make you stronger, faster, or smarter. What the Cindray does is grant it's possessor the ability to travel freely between universes. Once you're holding it, you have only to imagine another universe to be instantly transported there. Or, if you're not sure where you want to go, just think _random _and you'll be in a completely new reality. The drawback is that the crystal takes some time to recharge after each trip. Usually only a day, sometimes as long as three. Unfortunately, though we didn't learn it until much later, it is also possible to harness the Cindray's power to destroy timelines. Annihilate universes."

That got some gloomy faces from everyone.

Anakin shook his head. " Why do I get a bad feeling about where this is heading? "

Suddenly he missed the fight with Dooku. Bad as the white-haired Sith was, at least he wasn't on the loose with some universe-destroying _Cindray _crystal.

Rajad stopped pacing. " We're not sure how it happened, but the Cindray came up missing around the same time Luke blew up the final Death Star. Thousands of years, and this crystal has never slipped from Senttian hands. We don't know where it went, who got it, or _how _they got it. All we know is that we detected it's presence here, on this planet, in this time frame, around the same time Han, Leia, and Chewie mysteriously vanished. The crystal's power-signature came in strongest around the area where those three were last sighted. Given the evidence, it's not a big leap to assume that the Cindray's new owner kidnapped them and took them with him to his own reality. Why remains unclear, but what is clear is that the Cindray is very likely in bad hands. This universe, along with many others, could be in serious trouble. One person with the Cindray crystal is more dangerous than all the Sith that have ever existed put together."

" That's pretty dangerous," Anakin agreed, " and I'm flattered that you chose Luke and I for the mission, but I don't see what we're going to be able to do about it. If the person who kidnapped Luke's friends has the Cindray, he could be in any one of the infinite universes you mentioned. Unless he comes back to _this _universe, how exactly are we supposed to pay him a visit? "

At this, Rajad pulled something from one of the deep pockets of her jawa garb. When she opened her hand a small, thin sliver of something pink rested on her gloved palm. It was incredibly tiny--maybe two inches long and about as wide as a fingernail, but it blazed as brightly as the blade of any lightsaber. She held it out openly for all to see.

" This is a tiny shard of the Cindray. Long ago we saw the need for a backup in case something like this were ever to occur, so we harvested this piece from the larger crystal. This shard is linked to that crystal and able to home in on it's signature across realities. It will take you at least as far as the right planet, but I must warn you that it is a one-way trip. One you get where you need to be, the only way you can return to your proper universe is with the Cindray itself. Fail in your mission and there's no coming back. You'll be stuck where you are--permanently."

Something was troubling Luke.

Well, a _lot _of things were troubling Luke, but one thing in particular demanded attention. A piece of the puzzle wasn't fitting quite right.

" Not that I'm not happy you chose us, but if you Senttians can travel back and forth in time, couldn't you just, you know, go back in time and stop the Cindray from getting stolen? "

" You have a sharp mind, Luke." Rajad sounded pleased, as if she were a teacher and her student had just given the correct answer to a mind-stumping problem, " That's part of the reason I chose you for this task. Both you and Anakin are powerful and skilled in the ways of the force. Anakin's the raw energy: the rebellious, aggressive risk-taker and brute force essential for tackling the even the toughest of jobs. You, on the other hand, temper Anakin's fire with caution and compassion. You bring balance to the table. Combined, there is little the two of you won't be able to overcome." Rajad's smile was lost in the darkness that obscures all jawa facial expressions, " As for your question, no, I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. There is little in the past that we Senttians can affect. One thing we definitely cannot do is change the past in a way that will affect us. On the same note, we cannot read minds or see into our own futures. We play the role of the observer. We watch, but seldom do we interfere. It is the way of things."

Anakin didn't see the point in having the ability to travel through time if you couldn't use it to change things for the better, but facts were facts. " So what you're saying is that you want Luke and I to take that crystal shard and recover the Cindray for you? "

Rajad nodded. " That's exactly what I'm saying. I'm not going to lie to you--it probably won't be easy. Whoever has the Cindray is probably very powerful and won't give it up without a fight. The fates of not only your friends and families hang in the balance, but the fates of several universes as well. The only advice that I can give you is to try and stay together as much as possible. Together you're stronger than you can imagine."

_I don't know, _Anakin thought, _I can imagine quite a bit. _Nevertheless, he was anxious to get started. He needed something _real_ to fight; something with a body to slash, hit, and beat around. Something a little more corporeal than nightmares and phantoms.

Luke couldn't lie to himself--he was scared. Plain old flat-out scared. So much depended on this mission--the fates of several universes, no less. He and Anakin couldn't fail. Period. If they did, there wasn't going to be any future to look forward to...for anyone. He watched as Rajad approached him, Cindray shard still held out freely in her open palm.

" If you are going to go, it must be quickly. The Cindray can't travel through time, but it will not take long to recharge, and once it does our culprit may decide to move on." She took Onyx's hand in hers. " I'll look after Onyx. After all, I am the one who gave her human form."

Onyx smiled a bit at that. She was very grateful to the Senttian who had taken her in and saved her life. Gingerly, she backed away to allow Anakin room to approach as Luke took the shard from Rajad.

Once he had it in his grasp, Luke pinched half the shard between his thumb and forefinger and held it out for Anakin to see.

The padawan managed a small half-smile. " Guess we're taking a trip." To Rajad, he said, " So what do we do to start this thing up? "

" Touch the shard."

Anakin did as Rajad instructed.

" Think of the Cindray. Order the shard to take you to it."

" That simple? " Luke was already forming the thoughts when he felt a sudden, unexpected rush, almost like being electrocuted by force-lightening only minus the pain. In his fingers the crystal shard's pink glow brightened to a blinding intensity.

" Good luck! " Rajad's voice came from far away.

In the next instant, everything was different.

O-o-O-o-O

Heat. Dryness. Wind.

Anakin opened his eyes and was quite surprised to find himself standing on the outskirts of Mos Espa. Alone.

" Luke? Luke where are you? " _Did that even work? _His mind raced for answers as he spun around in a complete circle, eyes frantically sweeping the area for any trace of his missing son.

Then..._W_a_it, what happened here! _His eyes settled over what his memory told him should be his old hometown of Mos Espa.

This was Mos Espa alright, but it looked terrible; like maybe it'd been hit with a couple bombs. All around buildings and homes lie in fragments and ruins. The few that managed to stand were in total neglect and disarray. Many of them had chunks blasted out of their sides or roofs that were caving in. Some of the damage was fairly recent: flames scorched the sandy walls of what had once been a popular diner. The wooden steps leading up to the main entrance were burning. A pillar of black smoke billowed up into the sky. By all means the fire units--or at least _someone_--should be attempting to douse the flames, but nobody was around.

Nobody, that was, except Luke.

" Luke? " Anakin spotted him standing near the burning building, and instantly knew something was up. For one thing, he didn't seem bothered at all by the fact that there was a burning building ten feet in front of him. He didn't appear worried that there may possibly be someone in there who needed help. In fact, the look on his face could almost be described as smug.

Even though he'd known him for less than ten hours, Anakin thought it seemed very out-of-character for Luke to just stand there and do nothing, especially with _that _kind of an expression.

Then there was the matter of his clothes.

Before they had left the caverns, Luke had been wearing this sorta beige, sand-washed outfit. Now he was dressed from head to toe in black--complete with matching cape.

Anakin quickly glanced down at his own outfit. Nope. No wardrobe change there.

_Which means...either the trip across universes changed his clothes and personality, or else this is not my Luke._

What were the odds?

Anakin didn't have the time to find out, because when he next looked up he'd been spotted. Now the Luke doppelganger was moving in on him.

For all the world, it _looked_ exactly like his Luke. Same body. Same face. Same dishwater-blonde hair. But something about this Luke was off. Anakin couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he knew in an instant that this was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, an alternate-reality Luke. And the force was strong with him. _Very_ strong.

AU Luke was a fast walker. They'd started out a good ten yards apart, and he'd covered half that in only a few seconds.

Anakin let him approach.

When he was only ten feet away, he paused, as if uncertain. Apparently he was just as surprised as Anakin to be having this little confrontation. His face took on a confused, baffled appearance.

Now that he was close, Anakin was finally able to see a physical difference between this Luke and the one he'd encountered right after being ripped from his timeline. This dissimilarity came in the form of a small scar perched just above AU Luke's right eye. It was hardly a noticeable distinction: the scar was perfectly straight, less than an inch long, and ended at the eyebrow. It was so small that it easily escaped notice unless you happened to be looking right at it.

__

Anakin wondered how he'd gotten it.

__

For a blessed moment all was silent, with each party studying the other, unsure how to react. AU Luke had a lightsaber at his belt, and he apparently didn't care if the whole world knew it. Anakin's lightsaber was fastened in a place a little less showy, but without any robes or loose-fitting clothing, it wasn't exactly invisible.

__

There is definitely something wrong here. Anakin carefully shifted his hand into position for a quick grab should he find himself needing to activate his weapon. It never hurt to be prepared. He was the first to break the silence.

__

" Luke?"

__

AU Luke inclined his head curiously to one side, then broke out into a grin. " These days I go by Darth Vulcanus."

__


	7. Dark Reflections

**Chapter 7**

" What? No! Wait! I'm not going to harm you. I just want to..." Luke gave up when the poor tattered-clothes woman he'd been trying to talk to dashed inside her hovel of a home and slammed the door shut promptly behind her. The whole time, she kept uttering things like "_Please, I have nothing left to give you," _and "_I beg you, please have mercy."_

" _Please have mercy? _" The bewildered Jedi mouthed silently, _What am I, a Sith Lord? She must think I had something to do with this. But why?_

The '_this'_ Luke was referring to was the present state of Mos Eisely. He'd appeared near the center of the town ten minutes ago and had instantly become aware of two things: **A**, This was not the Mos Eisely he was used to, and **B**, Anakin was missing.

Yoda knew what had happened to Anakin, but Mos Eisely was a picture straight out of _The Book Of Nightmares_.

Luke's hometown was in shambles. Whichever way he happened to look there was nothing but ruin to meet his eye. Several homes and businesses were reduced to rubble. Many more were on the verge of collapse. Of those structures that still managed to stand, the largest percentage had horrific chunks blown clean out of them, as if someone had gone trigger-happy with a high-powered blaster.

The local law enforcement agencies were just gone. Vanished. Only a few fragments scattered over the sand survived to give any hint that there had once been something there. Various styles, makes, and sizes of speeders and transports littered the area...all abandoned. Some were mangled and damaged beyond use, but many weren't. Traffic signs, mail boxes, pods...almost every conceivable type of property had been damaged in some way or another.

Bad as all that was, it got even worse.

Much worse.

Dozens of dead bodies lay scattered about the area. They were everywhere: in the rubble of their homes, near landspeeders, piled in ditches off to the sides, littering the streets. The killers, whoever they were, had made no noticeable distinctions in choosing their victims. The fallen ranged from infants to elderly, fit to unfit, onworlders to offworlders, men to women—specimens of every race, nationality, creed, color, and species.

Almost as varied as the dead were the injuries to which they'd succumbed.

Much as he _really_ hadn't wanted to look at them, Luke had forced himself to take notice of every grotesque detail. Herein he was sure would lie the clues to the murderers.

The first thing he had noticed was that, in addition to the other wounds they had received, a number of cadavers were missing limbs and/or slashed neatly through the side/stomach. Some bodies were burned and charred beyond recognition. For others, the cause of death appeared to be a multitude of mysterious puncture wounds inflicted all over the face and torso. While many of these mortal wounds had undoubtedly resulted in an instant death, there were a few victims that appeared to have died much slower, and in agony.

What had troubled Luke most of all, though, was a startling number of corpses that showed no physical indication of what had killed them. They were just dead, and, from the looks and smells of things, hadn't been that way for long. Whatever had happened had happened fairly recently—probably inside of just a few hours. Some of the buildings were still smoking.

In all of his life, nothing could have prepared Luke for that ghastly scene of carnage. He was bearing witness to the aftermath of a massacre. Cold, calculated cruelty.

Yet even in the midst of such devastation, there were survivors. They were dirty, dressed in rags, and dangerously thin, but they were alive. Having seen a few of these people out mourning their losses, Luke had instinctively rushed to their aid.

Who would've guessed that his instincts would've chosen then of all times to be wrong?

He'd known it'd be an emotional moment for these people—after all, they'd just survived a cataclysmic bloodbath that had left their homes destroyed and their loved ones dead—but he hadn't known just _how_ emotional until they caught sight of him. The second that happened, the Mos Eisely survivors flew into Panic Mode to the tenth power. It was incredible. In all his life, Luke had never seen a more frightened bunch than this. His presence struck fear into the heart of every living thing within view. Before he'd had time even to utter the first syllable of his first word they were racing for cover. Despite his best efforts to calm them down and repeated promises that they would be okay, nobody had had the nerve to stick around and talk to him.

The woman now cowering behind the closed door of her dilapidated house had been no different. Sure, she looked a little better for wear than the rest, and like maybe she would listen. But then, BAM, she'd noticed Luke and raced for cover with a speed that would have put the Millennium Falcon to shame.

Hoping that maybe he might be able to coax the terrified woman out of hiding and into speaking, Luke knocked gently—_very_ gently—on her door. The shades to the window were drawn and he couldn't see anything, but he could hear sobbing coming from within. This was one unhappy lady, whoever she was.

Luke's heart went out to her. _Poor woman. I wonder who she lost? Husband? Parents? Kids? _The death toll was devastating.

Part of him was still in shock. It was all sinking in. He'd known some of those people. Seen them in shops. Talked to them on the street. Went to school with them. Now they were dead. Just like that. Everyone he'd grown up with..._No, not the people I grew up with, _he had to keep reminding himself, _this is an alternate reality. An alternate reality where, apparently, everything that could go wrong did. _That brought in a new perspective. _Gee, and here I thought things couldn't possibly get any worse in my **own** universe._

" Miss? "

The woman didn't answer. Odds were, she wasn't going to.

For a fleeting moment, Luke entertained the idea of inviting himself in, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was _not_ there to harm anyone, and then attempting communication. Frightened as she was, the lady _had _to know _something_.

_No, _he decided, _she's scared enough as it is. Even if I could somehow get her to talk to me she probably wouldn't be very coherent._

Having failed that, the young Jedi turned back around and instantly wished he hadn't. The air was heavy with the stench of decaying flesh. And the bodies...let's face it, no matter how many times he was subjected to the grisly visuals, each time was like the first time.

" What happened here? " He whispered softly, shaking his head. This dimension sucked so much it wasn't even funny. Words failed to describe just how sick he felt inside.

All those bodies, all those faces...no, he couldn't start thinking about that now. _Moving on..._

Luke Skywalker was no stranger to death; he'd even brushed shoulders with it a couple of times. All throughout his life people had died, and after discovering the smoldering remains of his aunt and uncle following the storm trooper attack on his home a few years back he'd been certain that nothing could ever shell-shock him again. How many of his rebel friends had died in the fight against the Empire? How many people he'd cared about had met with a brutal, untimely end? Ben/Obi-Wan's death had been painful and his father's death had hurt more than he'd ever imagined possible. So yeah, Luke knew tragedy.

This took tragic to a new level. And beyond. The area was alive with pain and suffering. Here the Force itself seemed to be weeping.

_Where's Anakin? _The question resurfaced fresh in Luke's mind and gave him focus. His biggest concern right now should be to find his missing father. Two Jedi were better than one, especially in this black reality.

Fishing around in his pocket, his fingers twined around the tiny Cindray shard. He pulled it out. Stared at it for a good, long minute.

The moment he'd appeared in this hellish dimension the crystal's brilliant, luminous pink had faded to a dull, worn-out black. Where once it had been alive with energy, now it was as dead as Mos Eisely. Rajad had been right—he wasn't going anywhere else by _this _route.

Still, intuition told him it may prove useful in the future. Slipping it back into his pocket, he let out a long, weary sigh.

" Anakin? " It still felt weird to be calling his father by name like that, but also strangely comforting. " Anakin, are you here? " He tried again.

Silence.

If Anakin was within earshot, he surely would have answered by now. Reaching out with the Force didn't help—the massive slaughter that had occurred just recently by far eclipsed any other readings he might be getting. The Force was finicky like that—at the right times it could prove an invaluable ally, but catch it at the _wrong _times and it wasn't quite as helpful. Sometimes it gave you good, detailed feelings and information—other times it wasn't quite as forthcoming. Even Master Yoda had had problems with his connection to the Force at times.

Anakin obviously wasn't in this area. Which meant that it was time for Plan B: wander around and look for him until he either found him or found someone with information who wasn't too frightened to share.

Swallowing back a wave of nausea, Luke surveyed his surroundings once more. To the left was the remnants of a cluster of small settlements. Straight ahead were the smoldering remains of some city council buildings. The road to the right, strewn with bodies and debris, lead to the heart of the town, and ultimately—if you followed it long enough—Mos Espa.

_Well, if I'm going to anything done, I guess I have to start somewhere. But where?_

The answer came to him in a gut-feeling: Mos Espa. It was a slightly larger town than this: hopefully it was in better condition. If he wanted answers, he'd find them there. Stepping carefully around the singed remains of a bantha-drawn fruit cart, he started walking.

He would find Anakin.

Together, they'd make whoever had done this pay.

O-O-O-O

Anakin blinked. " What? " It was all he could think of to say.

Darth Vulcanus looked insulted, " _What? _What are you, deaf? " His tone was mocking and sarcastic, " Let me spell it out for you: I..." his lightsaber jumped into his hand, " am..." and activated, " a Sith! " he said the word '_Sith' _with extreme pride, the way Han might say '_Millenium Falcon'_. Then, just in case there was an inkling of doubt in anyone's mind, he made a mock lunge at Anakin with the red saber.

The blade wouldn't have hit him, but Anakin wasn't taking any chances. The very nanosecond Vulcanus made his move he was already jumping back, calling his own weapon to his hand in the process. He lost no time in igniting it, feeling a rush of vigor as the searing blue blade blazed to life.

Another battle!

He wondered briefly if fighting Sith Luke would be anything like fighting Count Dooku. In one way he hoped so—he'd really wanted to finish that battle—but then again, he was also quite fond of his right arm.

Bravely, he leveled Obi's lightsaber at this darker version of his own grownup son. " You don't know who you're dealing with..."

" On the contraire, I do." Darth Vulcanus interrupted, blocking a blow aimed for his arm, " Overgrown padawan trying to play hero? I've danced this dance before, kid. Believe me, not impressed."

Anakin couldn't believe it. Not only was this Luke aligned with the dark side of the Force, but he had the nerve to poke fun at _him_? Outrageous!

" Overgrown padawan, huh? " His voice trembled under the forced courtesy of responding in a halfway Jedi-like manner, " Then I'll bet you're going to be feeling pretty stupid in a moment." With what he hoped was a self-confident, arrogant grin, he entered his fighting stance and began to circle his opponent, looking for an opening.

Darth Vulcanus did the same.

Now they were ready to rumble.

Clearing his mind as best he could of distractions, Anakin reached out with the Force and tried to get a bearing on this new threat. What he felt..._sensed_...was all bad news. Darth Vulcanus was strong with the Force. _Very_ strong. Definitely stronger than Count Dooku—maybe even stronger than Master Yoda. _Ok, that is not a good sign. _Swallowing back his anxiety, he searched this alien Luke's eyes for any trace, any hint of emotion.

Confidence.

Power.

Darth Vulcanus was not afraid. He gazed at Anakin with the eyes of someone certain of their own victory: someone who knew that, no matter what, he couldn't lose. His taunting smile was one of assumed superiority. He didn't _think _he was the best, he _knew_ it.

Anakin's bluff-smile vaporized quicker than a raindrop on the blade of a lightsaber. Suddenly this wasn't looking like such a hot idea. All his better instincts told him to back off, to keep his cool and find out what this AU Luke wanted. It would be the wise thing to do...

Darth Vulcanus feigned a yawn. " You are, at some point, going to attack, right? C'mon, I'll even make it real easy for ya." Lowering his lightsaber, he kept his free hand at his side, " There? See? I gave you the advantage."

_This is lame, _Anakin thought, _even **I** know better than that._

What was this joker trying to pull?

Rather than attacking, he hung back, refusing to take the bait. However, there was still something of a problem. While he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt what he _shouldn't _be doing, he didn't exactly know what he _should_ be doing. So far, Darth Vulcanus hadn't made any serious attempts to actually inflict any damage on him. That didn't mean he couldn't or wouldn't, but at the moment his motives remained unclear.

What _was_ clear was that the young Sith had to be pretty cocky to be exposing himself for attack like that.

This told Anakin one of two things: either Vulcanus was a professional in the finer arts of bluffing, or else he had a good reason to feel the way he did. He could almost hear Obi telling him to stay calm, trust his instincts, and focus. As Count Dooku had been proving earlier, a Sith's taunts were meant as distraction with which to throw his enemy off-guard.

Vulcanus rolled his eyes. " Oh, come _on_ now! You've got to be the worst Jedi I've ever seen! I offer you a free shot and you don't even take it? "

" Surely you didn't think I would fall for that." Anakin said simply, " It's the oldest trick in the book."

Vulcanus's response was a casual shrug. " Okay, but just remember I gave you the chance." He swung his blade back up in a perfectly-executed arc.

Seizing on the element of surprise, Anakin rushed forward and struck his foe's lightsaber with the intent of knocking it out of his hand. The attempt failed. Blade sizzled on blade, and Anakin leapt back before his foe could retaliate.

" Finally! " Darth Vulcanus grinned, obviously enjoying every minute of this, " Nice try, but I really hope you didn't think that would work."

Again, their weapons met, and this time Anakin's crumbled under the blow. Before he could remedy this, Vulcanus did the unexpected. In a move strikingly similar to Count Dooku's, he swiftly broke contact, swept his blade down, and brought it up in an arcing swipe aimed for Anakin's elbow.

This time, however, Anakin was quick enough, and Vulcanus missed his mark.

_Alright! _Obi's apprentice cheered inwardly, feeling very pleased with himself just then. Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad fight after all. Darth Vulcanus may be stronger with the Force than he was, but that didn't necessarily mean that he knew how to _use_ that power to his advantage.

Then again, maybe that wasn't an entirely accurate assumption.

Ten seconds later, and he was changing his tune.

Say what you liked about him—Darth Vulcanus was an excellent swordsman. Whoever had trained him had really known their stuff. He had a lightsaber and he wasn't afraid to use it. Anakin found himself getting backed towards a wall.

_Good to see I'm still a real champion with a saber. _The blonde-haired Jedi padawan reflected with a degree of sarcasm, _Too bad I can't take this guy back with me and turn him loose on Dooku. _That would be the battle of the year.

" Please, could you at least _try_ to fight? " Darth Vulcanus actually sounded disappointed, " My grandmother hit harder than you. I'd give my right hand for an actual challenge."

A slow smile spread on Anakin's face. _What an ironic phrasing. _" Careful what you wish for." He parried the next blow, then even managed to sneak in one of his own. It wasn't much, but at least it was an improvement. Now instead of losing ground he was holding his own.

Darth Vulcanus was faring much better. The sheer effortlessness with which he countered Anakin's strikes would have left the best swordsmen on the Jedi Council drooling with envy. A flash of crimson here, a streak of red lightning there, every swipe, every _movement _was perfect. Indeed, Vulcanus's saber didn't seem to slash, but rather to _glide_ in and out of each attack and defend.

There could be no question that he had been at this for awhile. A person didn't just achieve that kind of liquid grace overnight. Even Dooku, as skilled a duelist as he was, couldn't boast these skills. This guy was dynamite.

_He's fighting the way **I** should be fighting._

What _really_ worried Anakin, however, was the fact that his opponent hadn't used any of his Force powers. A Sith of Darth Vulcanus's level should be able to use Force lightning by now.

_Not that I'm complaining..._

Force lightning, as he'd discovered the painful way, was the ace a Sith kept up his sleeve. It was one weapon a Jedi could never use, because it required a powerful connection to the dark side of the Force. Count Dooku certainly hadn't been above using _his_.

Yet, so far, Dark Luke hadn't done anything to suggest that he even _had_ access to that kind of power. _But he must, _Anakin reasoned, _his connection to the Force is too strong for that not to be a possibility. He has the power, alright. He's just not tapping into it. But why?_

There was no time to explore that thought in depth.

Springing aside in the nick of time, Anakin narrowly avoided having his fingers sliced off.

Curiously enough, all of Vulcanus's attacks so far had been aimed at either his arms or hands. Not once had his foe struck at his head or chest, even though he could have. Interesting attack pattern.

Now, Anakin wasn't jumping to any conclusions—Obi had continuously warned him not to do that—but it didn't seem like Darth Vulcanus was trying to kill him. Which would mean he was holding back, which would mean..._He's toying with me!_

What else would explain the showy, non-life-threatening attacks?

Dooku had been all business. He was a ruthless, underhanded, evil Sith Lord, and in battle it really showed. All of his saber-thrusts served a single, simple purpose: destroy the enemy. He hadn't really been big on messing around.

Vulcanus's style was much more relaxed...playful, even. Where Dooku had been firmly focused on winning, he seemed more interested in dancing around and practicing a bunch of fancy twirls. This wasn't a man who felt in the least threatened. Rather than trying to hurt Anakin, he seemed to be trying to impress him.

Anakin _was _impressed, though he would never in a million years verbally admit it. When he could risk the glance in between blows, the out-powered padawan surveyed his surroundings, looking for anything he could use to his advantage.

There wasn't much.

Desert to the left, desert to the right. Ruined Mos Espa directly behind him. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a few locals peering out from behind the smoldering remains of sand-blasted buildings—watching, but too terrified to move.

Yes, he decided, the town would be his best bet should he find himself in need of a hasty retreat. The place was by no means a fortress, but at least there would be plenty of places to hide, and maybe a few weapons to boot. He would wait for Dark Luke to slowly back him into it. In the meantime he would just have to...

" If that's all you've got, you might as well throw down your lightsaber, and we'll call it a fight." Darth Vulcanus snickered tauntingly, " Here, let me show you how it's done."

_Uh-Oh._

Anakin tried to raise his saber, tried to brace himself for the inevitable attack, but he was half a second too late. Vulcanus lifted him up with the Force and threw him to the side like so much garbage. There was a muffled thud as his body collided with a large chunk of treated sandstone that had been blasted from the side of someone's home. The impact hurt, but only a little. He recovered in an instant and was back on his feet, reactivating his lightsaber.

Less than five yards away, Vulcanus looked on, his expression halfway between an openmouthed 'o'and a smug smirk.

" Not bad, was that? "

Anakin rolled his eyes and made a curt _hmphf_. " I could do that when I was six." He bragged, even though it was blatantly untrue. Using the Force, he lifted a piece of twisted landspeeder from some burning wreckage and flung it at his enemy.

Vulcanus's hand shot out. Catching the piece midair in an invisible Force grasp, he cast it harmlessly to the side where it exploded on impact with a heap of broken droids. Then he readjusted his grip on his lightsaber and moved in." Going to have to do better than that, Ani. I'm not some youngling trapped in a temple."

Anakin was taken aback. No _way _this Luke could know him!

" What? You _can't_ know my name..." he stuttered, "_You know who I am?! _"

Vulcanus paused in his stride, flicked a stray lock of dark-blonde hair away from his face. " What, you thought perhaps that Cindray Crystal abducted itself? " He chuckled condescendingly, " C'mon now, _Father_. You of all people should know better than that. You're younger than the others I've encountered so far, but trust me when I say I've skipped through enough dimensions to know an Anakin when I see one. I've even seen some inferior versions of _me_." Here he scowled, as if he'd taken a bite out of something that didn't taste quite right. " I tell ya, seeing that other Luke get both arms chopped off..._that _image will stay with me. Idiot just stood there staring at his sister. Didn't even try to do anything about the monster that was five feet away and clearly wanted to murder him."

As Dark Luke was saying all of this, Anakin's eyes kept running back and forth between him and what remained of Mos Espa. It wasn't that he hadn't been listening—he had—but the here and now was much more important than some slow-witted Luke Darth Vulcanus had seen in another universe.

" So this is your own reality then? " He asked casually, hoping to keep him talking. The more Vulcanus talked, the more information he might let slip.

" Magnificent, isn't it? " With a quick spin, the black-clad Luke swept his lightsaber into a complete circle to indicate the area they were in.

Anakin felt sick. " Did you do that to Mos Espa? " He asked, even though he was sure he knew the answer.

" Hey, nothing personal, but they didn't pay their tribute." Vulcanus said with a small shrug, as though massacring a whole village was an entirely reasonable response to such behavior.

" So you just _slaughtered_ them? That's a bit extreme, don't you think? " _Not that I have a place to talk..._

" They knew the risks." Vulcanus's lack of empathy was painful, " There is no room for weakness or failure in this empire. Those who fail to adapt fail to survive. That's just the way it is. Besides, I didn't get all of them." He gestured with his lightsaber out to the few battered survivors Anakin had spotted earlier. They immediately lost their nerve and cowered back into hiding. " See? They're not _all_ brain-dead."

" But the others..."

" Inconsequential." Vulcanus shook his head as he admired his handiwork, " What can I say? It's not like I didn't give them chances to pay the full amount. Too many chances, actually. I got tired of getting excuses instead of results. They're lucky they caught me on a good day. Believe me, I could've done a lot worse." His humorless gaze settled on Anakin, who instinctively raised his lightsaber, " I know you've come for the Cindray. I don't know how you were able to travel from your universe without it, but you're not getting it."

Anakin was about to say that he wouldn't be so sure about that when the steady hum of an approaching engine turned both his and Vulcanus's heads to the South.

Sure enough, a sliver landspeeder streaked into view carrying a lone human male. Anakin didn't recognize him, but as the man approached it became increasingly obvious that he was one of Vulcanus's lackies. For one thing, he was heading right towards them. And if that weren't already enough to set him apart from your average citizen, there was the matter of his wardrobe: an all lava-red uniform. People simply didn't _dress _that way on this planet.

Vulcanus got a slightly annoyed look on his face, but let him approach. The guy in the red uniform pulled alongside him and the engine quieted down to near-silence. This stranger—Anakin mentally tagged him as 'Red Uniform'—was by no means a small man. In fact the reverse was the case. Yet despite being at least 300 pounds, over six feet tall, and built like a tank with muscles that would make a Wookie jealous, the fear rolled off him in waves as he regarded his boss.

Even though it wasn't really a funny situation, Anakin had to quell his urge to laugh out loud. There was just something insanely comical about seeing a man with muscles the size of boulders cower down before a guy nearly a third his size. If Darth Vulcanus had been just a regular man without any special weapons, powers, or training, Red Uniform could have picked him up and stuffed him down his pocket.

" This had better be good," Vulcanus hissed dangerously, sending his minion a glower that could freeze Mustafar, " can't you see I'm busy? "

Red Uniform looked about ready to pee his pants. " Lord Vulcanus, Sir, Lord Vader is back from his trip. He wishes to see you immediately."

Vulcanus glared at him, and for a moment it looked as thought he might slash him where he stood. His lightsaber twitched a bit.

" Look," Red Uniform added hurriedly, " Lord Vader personally asked me to come here and relay this message to you. If that was a mistake, all you have to do is say so."

Much to Red Uniform's—and Anakin's—relief, Darth Vulcanus deactivated his lightsaber and slid it back into place on his belt. With a frustrated sigh, he shook his head and made a face, as if this were an all-too-common occurrence.

" It _figures_." He groused irritably, " Always when I'm in the middle of something. If it's that important, I wonder why he didn't just send me a transmission? "

He glanced down at his right arm. Realized he wasn't wearing a receiver for such a transmission. Realized that Vader was probably very cross about having to send a random Joe to go get him.

" Oh." Rather than cold or condescending, this time Vulcanus's laugh was one of embarrassment, and in that split-second Anakin saw some of his Luke shine through, " Ya know, I _thought_ I was forgetting something when I got dressed this morning. How about that? " Remarkable how swiftly his voice could change from cynical and menacing to lighthearted and jocular.

And just how many Sith were able to laugh at themselves?

Anakin wished he had known his own Luke better. Maybe then he could tell just how similar this version was. While Sith Luke wasn't going to be winning any good Samaritan awards any time in the near future, he did appear to share at least a few traits with his Jedi doppelganger—traits that somehow went beyond his near-identical appearance.

Well, if Vulcanus didn't plan on resuming their little fight, Anakin wasn't going to give him a reason to. Deactivating his own saber, he put it away while he waited for his adversary to make his next move. While it generally wasn't a good idea to lower your defenses in front of a Sith, his instincts told him he would be alright.

Besides, he was still processing what Red Uniform had said. One thing in particular about that wasn't sitting well with him.

_Darth Vader! Darth Vulcanus is allied with Darth Vader! _His mind whirred with the possibilities, _Oh great, **another **universe where I turn Sith. _He shut his eyes and physically winced. _Yep, _He reflected with a degree of chagrin, _From the very moment I first heard about Mom and the Tuskens I knew, just **knew**_, _the day was well on it's way down the toilet. I should never have left Tatooine. Thanks a lot, Qui-Gon and Obi._

Compared with this, being Watto's slave was starting to sound more and more like the comfy alternative. He was actually starting to wish he really _hadn't_ left the planet when he was nine. So he wouldn't have become a Jedi. So what? At least he'd still have his mother—he'd have made sure of that—and without skill or Force powers who was going to take him seriously if he suddenly happened to proclaim himself 'Darth Vader'? Of course, without being influenced by the Jedi and then somehow corrupted by the Sith, it was doubtful he'd be in the situation to make such an announcement in the first place. So you see, it really would have been for the best if he'd have just said 'No' to Qui-Gon.

_And, _he suddenly realized, _Padmé and I could be together without having to keep it secret! Nobody cares if a Naboo Senator marries a slave. Assuming I had remained a slave, which I probably wouldn't have. I would have found a way to free both Mom and myself._

The more he thought about it, the more Anakin felt that becoming a Jedi had ruined his life. How much better things would have been if he _hadn't _won that stupid pod race ten years ago. Sure that would have put Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in something of a fix, but heck, they were Jedi—they'd have found their way off the planet eventually. Who knew, maybe they'd have been better off in the long run too. For as much as Anakin resented Obi's overly-critical nature and failure to understand where he was coming from, he still loved his master. Obi was like a father to him. He deserved an apprentice who wasn't destined to one day turn Sith and kill him.

_I wonder if this universe's Obi is still alive? _It seemed doubtful, what with there being two powerful Sith around and all, but you never knew. He didn't have a hard time imagining that Obi could have found a safe place out there somewhere.

All of this thinking took place in the space of about ten seconds, during which time Vulcanus had appeared to have been having some thoughts of his own. Whatever he'd been thinking about, he made up his mind quickly. Ice-blue eyes darted from Red Uniform to Anakin.

" Well, my father's calling me, so it looks like you get a lucky break. If you're still deadset on getting that crystal, we keep it over _there_." He turned around and pointed to a rather large, shapely volcano a ways off in the distance, a volcano that Anakin had somehow managed not to notice earlier.

Now that he was looking at it, he couldn't help but to wonder how that thing had gotten there. By all rights, it shouldn't exist. True, geography had never been his forté, but he liked to think that he would've remembered seeing something as big as a _volcano, _no less, in the area outlying his own hometown. Evil doubles weren't the only thing different about this reality.

And what was that faint hum off in the background? Sounded a lot like an engine.

" That's right," Vulcanus went on with utmost pride, " our base here is a volcano. Oh, sure, it _sounds_ hot, but I assure you we use only the best in air-conditioning technology. It's really quite cozy. So go ahead: sneak past all our death-traps, guards, and security and pay us a visit. Few survive, but you're welcome to try. I'm sure Dad would get a kick out of seeing you. And, while you're at it, feel free to bring _him_ along too, if you'd like."

Anakin followed Darth Vulcanus's eyes over to Luke, who had just raced out from behind a building on a landspeeder. _I was right, it **was **an engine!_

Luke—the Jedi version—killed the motor and leapt off the speeder. Now that he had a clear, unhindered view of his Sith counterpart, his jaw dropped and his eyes went wide with shock. _Holy banthas, it's like looking into a mirror! A twisted, dark mirror!_

Anakin didn't blame him. His eyes swept back and forth between the two at rapid speed. They could be clones.

For all intents and purposes, the two Lukes looked _almost _exactly the same. Same dark-blonde hair that looked almost brown. Same liquid blue eyes. Same skin tone. Same features pronounced exactly the same way on the same face. Same thin, lean build. However, there were a few notable differences.

One was the slender scar decorating Vulcanus's right eye. Light Luke didn't have this, and Vulcanus/Dark Luke didn't have a scar encircling either one of his wrists. In addition, Vulcanus's hair was a just little bit longer than Light Luke's. Light Luke was a just a tad leaner than Vulcanus, who was slightly more robust.

And, of course, there was the glaring fact that their clothes were polar opposites: Light Luke was wearing a sandy-beige colored outfit whilst Dark Luke was clad exclusively in black with the matching cape.

For a blessed moment, there was silence. Even Red Uniform, who was standing around like a good little minion, was visibly surprised.

Darth Vulcanus broke the ice. " Hello there, Pathetic Luke." He waved a few fingers in greeting.

The insult slid off Luke like water. " You! Where are Han and Leia? " He hadn't meant to exclude Chewie, but in the excitement of the moment it just sorta happened.

Vulcanus awarded him a lopsided grin. " They're in good hands, my inferior doppelganger. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have places to be."

Red Uniform suddenly flew off his speeder like he'd been punched by a giant fist.

" Thank you for offering me your speeder, Big Guy." Vulcanus told him with mock sincerity, " Such a selfless act. Looks like you'll be walking."

Several feet away on the ground, _Big Guy_'s only response was a muffled moan.

Having taken care of that, Vulcanus began to mount the speeder. This meant that his back was turned to both Anakin and Luke.

Now, since Luke had arrived on the scene bit late, he didn't have all the facts of the matter, which put him at a disadvantage. He didn't know about the Cindray's location, the presence of Darth Vader, Darth Vulcanus's powerful connection to the Force, or the Siths' volcano lair. All he knew was that his friends were in trouble—maybe danger—and possibly the only person on the planet who knew where they were was about to ride off into parts unknown.

He wasn't about to let that happen.

No time to think, just act!

For maybe the second time since his Jedi training, Luke abandoned both the Force and his intuition and jumped to a conclusion. Assuming Darth Vulcanus's powers and skills were comparable to his, he lunged for him.

" Oh no you don't! Anakin, let's get him! "

_You've got to be kidding me. _Anakin thought with a rush, for he'd seen what Luke hadn't: Vulcanus's right hand starting to light up with an electric hot-pink glow just as he'd turned to get on the landspeeder.

" Luke! No! " Anakin dashed forward and caught his son by the shoulder at exactly the same time Vulcanus snapped back around and released his charged-up energy.

A searing, hot-pink-tinged-with-purple laser beam somewhere around four inches in diameter erupted from the palm of the Sith Lord's hand and missed the good Skywalkers by a margin of inches. With a pretentious smirk, he drew his continuous beam of hot-pink death up and around in an arc that cleanly and efficiently severed the upper two levels of a three-level building fifty feet away. The building began to lean to one side at an unhealthy angle.

" Holy..."

The rest of Luke's words were drowned out in the thunderous roar of the collapsing structure. The racket of shattering glass and crumbling walls mingled with the screams of the few unfortunate individuals who had happened to be inside. A few seconds later, and it was all over. The entire building simultaneously toppled over and collapsed in on itself.

Satisfied that he had made his point, Vulcanus cut his beam. " Still want to 'get' me? " He challenged.

For a moment, Anakin and Luke seemed frozen in a kind of stunned stupor. Gazing upon the ruined building, their faces were a perfect mix of shock and horror. Vulcanus's Force laser, or whatever you wanted to call it, had sliced through several feet of tough rock and bits of metal like a hot knife through butter. They'd never seen anything like it.

Neither was saying what the other was thinking, but they'd both came to the silent agreement that no, it probably wasn't a good idea to try and tackle Darth Vulcanus until they knew a little more about him and what he was capable of.

Vulcanus cocked an eyebrow questioningly. " Well? "

Startled out of their trance, father and son quickly turned their sights back on Vulcanus, who was clearly enjoying the attention.

_You mean that wasn't a rhetorical question? _Luke forced a nervous grin and elbowed Anakin gently in the side.

" Ah...no, we're good." Anakin blurted, feeling like a fish out of water.

Vulcanus's grin deepened. " Thought so." Turning his back to the pair, he settled comfortably in the seat of the speeder. Moments later, he was nothing but a small black speck against the red-orange desert of Tatooine.


	8. Jedi's Nightmare

_**A/N: **Thanks all around to everyone reading! Before I get started with this chapter I want to make an announcement. As a few of you may already know, I've already started a companion ficlet to this story called " The Heart Of A Sith" that takes place sometime during this story. ( I won't reveal specifically **when** until near the end. ) It's just a fun little ( by this I mean it won't be more than 7 chapters long ) side adventure following one of Vulcanus's forays into the Episode III universe around the same time Anakin was attacking the Jedi Temple, and younglings! It's not crucial you read it to keep understanding this story, but I would be tremendously flattered if you checked it out! _

**Chapter 8**

It wasn't hot in the volcano, but it was very warm. Warm enough to make most creatures who visited uncomfortable. The air was torpid and stuffy.

Darth Vulcanus strode down the narrow passages purposefully; the passages he himself had helped to create. The lack of ventilation didn't bother him; he'd long since grown used to the heat and sulfuric smell. All part of the package when you lived in a volcano. Even a synthetically created one such as this.

He passed a few minions on his way, all of whom were wearing the lava-red uniforms that identified them as his people. Darth Vader's lackies all wore black suits, which had to be painfully uncomfortable in such a hot climate. But then, minion comfort had never ranked high on his father's list.

It was a matter of self-importance, really. Though each subordinate was designated either a black or red uniform tying him or her more to either Vader or Vulcanus, wearers of both colors had to defer to either Sith if they valued the notion of having a normal lifespan.

When orders clashed, however, it was Darth Vader's word that was law. Darth Vulcanus was very powerful, and he could kill every bit as well as his father, but in the end he was still only the apprentice. When push came to shove, Vader walked right over Vulcanus.

On a slow day Vulcanus might have stopped briefly for a progress report—after all, each of these workers had jobs to be doing, and he so loved to deal with the slackers—but today he barely acknowledged their presence other than to note with satisfaction their abject fear at being within fifty feet of him.

At his brisk pace, it did not take him long to reach the fragile, rickety wooden bridge extending several dozen feet across a boiling lake of lava. Without so much as a glance at the superdroid standing guard over it, the young Sith stepped confidently onto the structure.

The flimsy wooden planks—held together only by lengths of loosely-woven rope—creaked an audible protest under his weight.

Vulcanus didn't mind. They'd designed this bridge to be this way on purpose. While there was a good chance some careless visitor would make a fatal step, he and Vader were in no real danger of taking an unplanned dip in the ol' lava pool.

Ahead was a door with a silvery, metallic sheen. It opened with the push of a button. The room beyond, while not particularly impressive in design or décor, was very large and quite roomy. Directly to the left and right walls were stationed two separate banks of computers at which several subordinates clad in both colors of uniform worked busily at the controls. Just like all the others, these guys were paid no heed.

No, Darth Vulcanus was far more concerned with the elevated throne platform at the back, and the figure descending the stairs to meet him.

" VULCANUS! I AM NOT PLEASED! " Darth Vader's greeting came in the form of a thunderous, angry roar.

" And I am not deaf." Vulcanus retaliated, reeling back and feeling as though his eardrums were about to shatter, " Sheesh, do you have to talk so loudly? " _Why is it we can be the only ones in the room and he still acts like he's addressing an entire battalion? _

One thing was for sure—Vader hadn't been lying about being in a bad mood. The murderous glower on his face caused even Vulcanus to flinch, something that didn't regularly happen.

Not that he particularly cared what his son thought about his lack of etiquette. In fact, he had half the mind to spout off a whole list of little idiosyncrasies Vulcanus had that annoyed _him_. But now wasn't the time. Later, perhaps, in a more private setting. Continuing his descent, he waited until he was at the bottom of the stairs and face-to-face with his apprentice before saying more.

" I am ruler of the Galactic Empire, in case you have forgotten. I can speak as loudly as I want." His tone was cooler this time, but still not without something of a harsh bite.

" Okay, fine, _Galactic Emperor_." Darth Vulcanus crossed his arms defiantly and gave his eyes a quick roll, " Have it your way. Just don't say I didn't warn you when we're both responding to every sentence anyone says with 'huh?' and a puzzled look."

Vader let it slide. Out of all the creatures in the galaxy, only his son could get away with speaking to him in such a manner. In fact, though he was much too Sith to ever openly admit it, he actually found the situation slightly comical. Of course, he would've had to kill anyone else on the spot for the sheer lack of respect.

" Let me guess," Vulcanus continued in that same flippant, nothing-is-bothering-me voice, " you didn't find what you were looking for? "

" If I had, do you really think I would be in such a foul mood? " Vader hissed, eyes blazing a deep, primal yellow.

Vulcanus shrugged. " Hard telling. No offense, but I can't recall ever actually seeing you in a _good _mood. The only time you ever smile is when you're killing somebody. And then it's more of a sneer than an actual smile…"

" I just can't believe it," Vader interrupted, " I mean, there's got to be a universe out there where they survived. There has to be! The other mes can't _all_ be that incompetent! "

" Hey," Vulcanus piped up, " I'm right there with you. I'd love to see a universe where I'm not some Jedi pansy afraid of lightning. All that '_I will not fight you' _garbage and…eugh…" he shivered for effect, truly disgusted with his AU counterparts, " They're nothing but pale imitations of me. All of them. Apparently, me being Sith is a pretty rare occurrence. And by the way, just in case I forget, thank you again for rescuing me from that idiotic farm."

Vader's glower lightened up a bit at that. The faintest stages of a smile began to work the corners of his mouth." What can I say? You weren't farm boy material. Leaving you there would have been such a waste." _Not to mention a huge risk. _

Vulcanus sighed. " Too bad we couldn't get to my sister in enough time."

All traces of light vanished from Vader's face, and Vulcanus was instantly sorry he'd brought it up. He knew his father still blamed himself for what had happened, even though it hadn't been strictly his fault. The subject of Leia was a sore one. He braced himself for the inevitable backlash of verbal abuse.

" Speaking of your sister, I wonder how our new friends are doing? " Vader mused, surprising Vulcanus with his relatively soft tone. He stretched out his right hand and played with a few sparks of Force-lightning generated from his fingertips.

" I could go check on them." Vulcanus offered, relieved.

Darth Vader nodded slowly, but he wasn't really focusing on his son. His mind drifted to days past, days before the Empire. Things hadn't really been so bad then. Sure, he'd thought they were at the time, but age and experience had wisened him up. He'd let so much slip through his fingers. So many opportunities wasted. So many words left unsaid. He wasn't going to make the same mistakes again. Ever.

Positioning his hand closer to his face, he watched the tiny lightning bolts jump between his fingers. So much power, and he hadn't even been able to hold onto the things he'd treasured most…

" Dad? Dad, are you okay? "

Vulcanus's words snapped the reminiscing Sith Lord back to the present. He balled his hand into a fist, suffocating his power. " Yes. Everything's fine."

" Good, because you were starting to worry me there. You looked like maybe you'd been smoking some of those little green ferns that grow down by the gorge. You know, the ones that make you act all weird and silly? " Vulcanus shuddered for effect, " I'm telling ya, once was enough for me. That was the very last time I took product over payment. That stuff messes with your mind."

At the mental image of his son smoking the infamous green ferns, Vader shook his head and grimaced. Figured. Luke always had been the adventurous type, even when it would have been better if he hadn't. " Just…check on our guests, okay? See if you can't make their stay a bit more…comfortable."

" Comfortable? They're in a cage, how _comfortable_ do you think they can get? "

Vader gave him the glare that meant he wasn't in the mood.

Vulcanus raised his hands in surrender. " Hey, I'm just saying." He turned and headed out the way he'd came, black cape sweeping the air behind him. His father's next words froze him mid-stride.

" Vulcanus, is there anything else I should know about? "

Vulcanus thought for a moment. " No. Nothing new to report." He answered carefully.

" You took care of the situations in Mos Eisely and Mos Espa then? "

" Affirmative." Why was he prying so much? All these extra questions were making Vulcanus a little uneasy. " They wouldn't pay up so I decimated them. Nothing too severe, of course. I made sure there were survivors to spread our message along to any other towns thinking about becoming deadbeats." He waited a second more in case Vader had anything else to add.

When he didn't, he continued on his way.

O-o-O-o-O-o

" Ok, that went well." Luke reflected wryly, still mildly in shock.

Darth Vulcanus had been out of their sight for a full five minutes, but neither Skywalker had moved.

Anakin shot Luke a disdainful look. " I don't want to hear one more word about how bad _I'm_ supposed to be." He said, only half joking, " As far as I'm concerned, that double of yours, _Darth Vulcanus_, can hold his own in the 'Sith Of The Year' campaigns."

But Luke was barely paying attention. " How are we going to beat something like that? " His softly spoken words carried with them a strong element of awe.

Anakin shook his head, scowling. " I have no idea. You're from the future, tell me: were my powers anything like that? When I was Darth Vader, I mean? "

Luke blinked. Something was in his eye, something rough and grainy. He wiped the offending piece of sand away before answering. " No, your powers weren't anything like that…" he caught himself, " Well, not that I know of, I mean. I didn't really spend a lot of time around you. But I kinda think that you couldn't throw lasers around, because if you had had that power there's a lot of things that happened that wouldn't make sense."

" There's a lot of that going around." Anakin muttered darkly. And here he'd thought finding the Cindray was going to be their greatest challenge. Now they had Evil Luke to deal with, and he was worse than ten Count Dookus. Anakin didn't see how he and Luke—even together—were going to be able to do anything more than annoy him.

A gentle desert wind blew up, tossing his padawan braid lightly against his cheek. It was almost as if it were laughing at him, reminding him of the way Vulcanus must see him—as a weak, inexperienced padawan. Anakin had never felt like one so much as he did now. Stupid wind.

Luke turned back to the remnants of Mos Espa. Tried not to think about how many had died, how many lives had been ruined. Aside from Alderaan getting blown up, this really was the worst disaster in recent memory. Almost everything was destroyed, and that which wasn't wasn't in that good of shape. And all for what? Because Darth Vulcanus was a cruel son-of-a-Sith who forced people to pay for the privilege of him not massacring them? That was brutal. In fact, the more he took in the ghastly scene before him, the more Luke had a hard time believing it was really his AU counterpart that had done this.

How could another Luke, even a Sith version, be so heartless? Luke didn't have it in him to kill wantonly. He just didn't. If his AU doppelganger was, as Rajad had lead him to believe, merely a twisted version of himself, he shouldn't have it in him either. Yet by murdering a ton of innocent people Vulcanus was clearly demonstrating that he _did_ have it in him, and that was scary. Scary because, even though Luke knew on the surface that he could never be like that, a part of him still wondered if perhaps he really did harbor a darkness somewhere deep within his soul. Maybe Darth Vulcanus was an example of what he would be like if ever that darkness escaped, just like Darth Vader was Anakin's dark side unleashed.

Luke's depressing musings were interrupted when a little girl darted out from behind an overturned transport. Pale, skinny, and grossly malnourished, she dashed over the rubble barefoot, dressed only in rags. Tears streamed down her dirty face.

" Hey! Little girl! Are you alright? " Luke called after her, even though it was glaringly obvious to anyone but a brain-dead Gungan that the child was _not _alright. He instinctively ran to her aid, Anakin hot on his heels.

At the sight of two grown men chasing her, the already distressed little girl panicked. " Go away! " She half whimpered half hissed. Desperate for a place to hide, she lost her sense of direction and ran against the wall of a building that was closed in on both sides by heaps of debris. Finding herself trapped, and her pursuers still coming, she began climbing up the rubble, her face scrunching up in pain every time her sore feet came into contact with the rough material.

Realizing that the poor kid viewed his chasing after her as a sign of hostility rather than hospitality, Luke slowed to a walk. She was scared. He got that. The last thing she needed right now was a Darth Vulcanus look-alike running at her. He held out his hand to signal Anakin to stop, and Anakin nearly slammed right into it.

" It's alright," he called out in the softest, most non-threatening tone he could muster, and ignoring the small look of annoyance Anakin sent his way, " I'm Luke Skywalker, not Darth Vulcanus. I'm not going to hurt you."

" Even if you _were _Vulcanus, you wouldn't hurt her." A gruff, gravely voice declared.

As one, Anakin and Luke turned their heads to the right to see a large, blue-furred _Hetpax _hobbling towards them on only three of the four legs characteristic of the species. In addition to his missing limb, the lumbering quadruped was also missing an eye, and half the fur on the left side of his body was singed.

" Darth Vulcanus is one mean Sith, but he doesn't kill children. Well, not intentionally, anyway." The Hetpax shifted his one good eye to the little girl, who was struggling to scale a chunk of wall ten times taller than she was. " It's okay, Talita. These guys were fighting Vulcanus. I know that one looks like him, but he's not."

Upon hearing the good news, the brown-haired Talita relaxed her hold on the jagged piece of pipe she was clinging to and started slowly making her way back down. The Hetpax gave her a nod of approval before turning his attention back on Anakin and Luke." You'll have to forgive her—Vulcanus killed both her parents only two hours ago. Pulled a building down on her mother and sliced her father in half with a Jabberwock beam."

" Jabberwock? " Anakin and Luke echoed in unison. Neither one of them had a good feeling about that.

The Hetpax sighed wearily, his big almond eye reflecting the pain and trepidation simmering just beneath his calm exterior. He was an older creature, and he had definitely seen better times. " You know that pinkish laser Vulcanus shot out of his hand? He refers to it as a '_Jabberwock' _after the primordial name for the deepest kind of fear. Basically it's a Force laser that cuts through anything it touches faster than a lightsaber. Worse, even if you only get grazed by it, your days are few. For some reason wounds inflicted by a Jabberwock never heal. I had a cousin once who got her hand sliced off by it a year ago. No matter what we did or how many strong medicines we put on it, it wouldn't heal even the tiniest bit. Poor thing was in misery for two days before the wound went septic and she bled to death. Not that Darth Vulcanus cared. He'll sweep that laser around all over the place, and you either dodge or die."

As the Hetpax was saying this, a whole group of shaken, rag-tag survivors were gathering around in a loose circle, scampering out from their hiding places like insects after a storm. One by one, children and adults alike ventured out of their safety zones to get a good look at these strange new visitors.

Their appearance was shocking. Dirty faces and ripped, unwashed clothes were the least of these people's worries. Several of the adults were bruised, beaten, cut, or in some other way scarred. More than a few were missing limbs, while others sustained blistering red burns to their sides, hands, faces, etc. The children, for the most part, were in better shape than their parents; few of them had any serious injuries, though a good percentage were dangerously thin and malnourished. The entire group, in fact, were far too frail and sickly, their ashen faces devoid of healthy skin tones. Curiously enough, the children outnumbered the adults three to one and none of the adults looked much over forty.

_That's odd. _Anakin thought, _You'd think the kids, being the weakest and most vulnerable, would be the first to go. _" Why doesn't Darth Vulcanus kill kids? " He blurted. Then, in an attempt to sound more sympathetic, he added, " Not that that's not a _good _thing, it's just that it seems a little…weird."

The Hetpax scratched his chin. " He needs to leave someone alive to rebuild so he can come in a little later on and destroy all over again. Children are the natural choice, since he knows most adults will wear out and starve to death themselves before they let their little ones suffer. He's done this to other towns before—always he leaves only the children and a few adults to look after them. He'll occasionally kill teenagers, but no-one's ever seen him kill a child under the age of twelve."

" It's a bad situation, true, but it could have been a lot worse." A scruffy brunette woman wearing the tattered remains of a light brown outfit supplied before either Jedi could comment, " At least it was only Darth Vulcanus that came. He leaves survivors. Darth Vader doesn't."

Luke's eyes widened in surprise, realization dawning. " You mean all this destruction…" he gestured outward with both arms, indicating the entire town, " …was done solely by Darth Vulcanus? He didn't have any help from any…Storm Troopers…or anyone else? "

" Aye." A Sagitern Twump agreed. His accent was startlingly thick. " T'was only Vulcanus. But 'lieve me, thaz enough. Heez been known ta tike out whole ermies jus by heez onesy self."

_Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. _Luke thought sarcastically, _We're in way over our heads. Even Ben would say we were in way over our heads. _

" What's Darth Vader like? " Anakin asked, curious.

At the mention of the Sith Lord's name, the entire assembly shivered. Mothers went all still and quiet and children buried their faces into the nearest available person, crying and quaking with fear.

" He's terrible! " A frightened female dug shrieked, her voice climbing higher and higher, " He imposes tax after tax on us, and if we start getting behind he sends Storm Troopers out to round up and kill all the problem payers and their families. Then, if we _keep_ getting behind, he sends Darth Vulcanus."

" The third offense he comes himself," a wiry black-haired man added nervously, " and believe me, if _Vader_ comes to your town, you might as well just kill yourself and get it over with. Unlike his son, he _will _kill children. He leaves _no_ survivors, not even tiny little house pets! "

" Wait…you know that Vader is Vulcanus's father? " Luke prodded, trying to get as much information as he could together. Anything could be helpful, even stuff that, at surface-value, may seem trivial.

" Of course we know," a man with an unsightly scar running the length from the corner of his mouth to the bottom of his ear replied," that's common knowledge. Vader's been training Vulcanus since he was a small boy, and now the two co-rule the Empire."

" Do they have any weaknesses? "

" Only each other." The lean black-haired man supplied, " Usually they get along, but every now and then they'll have these fights. They had a big one once, destroyed an entire city and everything within three miles of it trying to get at each other. Fire fell from the sky like rain that day, and volcanoes all over the planet erupted simultaneously, killing thousands. Now, this is only a rumor here, but some claim that those were no coincidences—that Darth Vulcanus made the volcanoes erupt and Darth Vader caused the fire to fall from the sky."

Anakin paled a bit at that. " Do you believe these rumors? "

Black Hair shrugged. " I don't know. I've never seen the Sith Lords up close and personal, obviously. I don't know all that they're capable of, only that they're extremely powerful. I suppose it's possible." He reached down to pick up a child that had started crying.

The circle shifted a bit. A few people were already starting to wander off now, their curiosity satisfied.

" I don't get it," Luke gushed, unaware of how loud he was being, " If things are so bad here why do you all stay? Why don't you all load up your families and move to a different planet, one far from here? "

" We can't." The Hetpax spoke up for the first time in a while.

" Even if we could, where would we go? " A one-armed woman asked, " The Sith rule the entire galaxy. There's no place to hide."

" The Empire has taken all our money." A dark-skinned woman stated simply.

" And Vulcanus and Vader own the only ships capable of such travel." A young red-headed man added sadly.

" So? " Luke threw out there, desperate to get these people out of this situation, " You could hijack a ship…"

" And go where? " The Sagitern Twump grumped, " There's a ton of satellites orbiting up there that will blast any unauthorized ship attempting to leave into a billion pieces. We wouldn't get far."

" In that case, maybe you could organize a rebel…" Luke started, then caught himself. This wasn't his universe. In his universe, Tatooine hadn't been in such a terrible state. These people were starving, beaten, weary survivors with no supplies and a snowball's chance in an inferno against the two most powerful men in the galaxy. They'd be lucky just to get enough to eat, never mind set up an army.

" What, a rebellion? " A Telsepian male finished, a flare of anger coloring his words." Been there, tried that, got squashed like insects. And that was _before_ we had two Sith to worry about. Do you know what's waiting for us out there? Do you, pretty boy? Two Death Star Space Stations, each capable of destroying a planet with only one shot, and an entire fleet of the Empire's best fighters manned by some of the most vile scum around. The Jedi already abandoned us—the ones Vader didn't kill, anyway—and no-one has seen them since. They knew it was hopeless. They knew they were doomed if they stayed. The only safe place to go these days is a galaxy far, far away; a galaxy beyond the Empire's reach. Not that such a trip is possible, even if we _could _get a ship. So what are we supposed to do? Huh, Vulcanus look-alike? Charge up to their volcano lair and throw rocks at them? You really _don't _get it, do you? Nobody escapes the Empire. Nobody defeats the Sith. All that has been tried. The only thing we can do is try our best to please them and hope they don't kill us. "

Before either Luke or Anakin could react to the heated speech, a thirty-something year old guy with only one arm and a huge scabbed-over burn in place of hair spoke up. " I…" He faltered, his words rattling in his throat, " I lost my wife and son to them. To Vader, actually."

Luke's expression was one of genuine sympathy. " I'm sorry to hear that."

The man broke out into sobs, and the woman next to him patted his shoulder in an act of comfort. " Shh. Easy there, Dwayno. Don't get yourself so worked up. Think of Fahrir and Ferris—it would hurt them to see you like this."

" Yes," a blond-haired woman agreed, " we've all lost someone at some point. You're not the only one who's ever had to go through this. I lost both my parents and all my brothers and sisters."

" I lost my brother." The excitable dug volunteered, as if that would somehow help.

" No! You don't understand!" Dwayno reached up and brushed his tears away with the back of his hand. Watery, soulful eyes locked on Luke's, and the young Jedi knew that the man's next words were meant for him, " It happened four months ago…"

" Dwayno, please," the woman next to him interrupted softly, her face heavy with grief, " why bother these strangers with our plight? These tales bring nothing but sorrow. We all know how…"

Dwayno jerked away from her, shaking his head energetically. " No! There's something I never told anyone! Something _he_…" he jerked his head towards Luke, " should know about."

Luke crossed his arms. " I'm listening."

_So am I_. Anakin thought, a little miffed that he was taking a back seat in all of this. What made Luke so special?

Once again, Dwayno met Luke's gaze. Clearing his throat, he tried again, this time keeping his voice quaver-free. " Like I was saying, it happened four months ago. My family and I were living in Selstine, a hundred and fifty miles east of here. I had some business out of town one day, and when I finally got back around dusk the whole town was a smoldering graveyard. Frantic, I hurried home, hoping that somehow my family had managed to escape. When I got there, Vader had my wife and son cornered." Here his voice broke, the memories too painful, " Little Ferris was crying, clinging on to his mother's leg. My darling Fahrir was crying as she pleaded with Vader to spare his life. She told him to take her instead of her son." Dwayno shut his eyes, biting back the tears. He couldn't get hysterical now. Not when the story was only half-told. " Vader….Vader plunged his lightsaber into her heart. I screamed and rushed in to save Ferris, even though I knew I didn't stand a chance. Vader whirled on me with his lightsaber, and that's how I lost my arm. Still, I hung in there, yelling at Ferris to run. Poor kid was so traumatized. He did start to run, but Vader caught him with the Force. Trying to escape was futile, he said. I yelled at him to leave my son alone and he threw fire at me for it, scorching my head…."

" Hold on," Anakin cut in, totally engrossed, " he threw _fire_ at you! How! "

" With his hand. He's very powerful, you know. Has all kinds of strange abilities like that." Dwayno forced himself to draw a deep breath. " Anyway, the fire forced me back. I knew then that my son and I were both doomed, and there isn't a word strong enough to express the hatred I felt towards him for taking my boy first and making me watch. I was about ready to charge in one last time, _force _him to kill me first, when Vulcanus came out of nowhere."

Surprised gasps emanated from the crowd.

The woman that had patted Dwayno on the shoulder earlier looked at him in a light of shock. " You told us that Vader knocked you unconscious and left you for dead! "

Dwayno's face drooped. " That's true, but there's more to it."

" Did…did Vulcanus kill your son? " Luke stammered, praying the answer was 'no'. Dwayno shook his head and he felt a wave of relief.

" No. Actually, Vulcanus tried to _save _my son. He put himself between Vader and Ferris and growled something along the lines of '_He's just a kid. Leave him alone.' _I swear, I could have kissed him right then. I thought that maybe, with Vulcanus backing me up, Vader would decide it was more trouble than it was worth and leave. I was wrong. Vader and Vulcanus ended up getting into a fight, and while they were busy with each other I caught up with Ferris and tried to find a place to hide. The next thing I knew I was flying through the air. My head hit something hard and I blacked out. When I came to, the Sith were gone and my son dead. I figured that meant Vulcanus lost the fight. I don't know how, but I managed to survive the night. Around dawn, a scouting party found me near the edge of what was left of Selstine. I was the only survivor."

Luke shook his head sadly. " That's awful. I'm very sorry."

" No, don't be sorry," Dwayno's voice grew stronger, brighter, " I don't know where you came from, stranger, or why you look so much like Lord Vulcanus, but your kindness and concern for others is a shining beacon of light in these dark times. I don't know what your mission is, or your reason for being here, but my heart tells me you have the courage and strength to succeed in anything you undertake. Don't you see? The story I just told you—the unabridged version—I kept it bottled up inside me. It was just too shameful for me to admit, even to myself, that even with Vulcanus's help I couldn't save my only son. But then you came along, and the subject of Vulcanus not killing kids got brought up. Until now, as Gyvo told you, the general consensus on a theory to explain this behavior was that Vulcanus saw the importance in leaving a young, strong, and at least semi-healthy generation to grow up, rebuild, and take the place of those killed. After all, he and Vader wouldn't have much fun ruling a gigantic graveyard with only droids for company. And that may be partially true, but I don't think it's entirely true." The older man's eyes locked with Luke's. " Vulcanus outright defied his father to try and save my son, even though he had every reason not to. I don't think he did that just to annoy Vader. For a second, when he looked at me, I stared into his eyes and saw the same trait, the same _spark _I saw in you just now. It wasn't rage, or hatred, or even the infamous teenage rebelliousness of a young man towards his father. It was compassion."

" Compassion? " Luke echoed, pleasantly surprised, " Then that means that…"

" That's right," Dwayno's gaze expanded to include everyone, " we'd never even considered it before, but Darth Vulcanus has a conscience."


	9. Heated Anxieties

**A/N: **_A double update! Believe it or not, this chapter and the next started out as a single continuous piece, but I kept adding bits and pieces here and there and before I knew it I had this 17,000 word giant. O.O So, to make it a little less strainful on the eyes ( and to avoid posting problems ) I split the monster up into chapters 9 and 10. That's part of the reason it took me so long to update. The other part is that I kept getting writer's block and constantly changing my mind about how I wanted this to unfold. In places I must've done three or four different re-writes. I care a great deal about the quality of my work and have a habit of being extremely critical of myself._

Another thing you will notice is that I changed the rating of this fic from K plus to T. This is just to be on the safe side, since I feel that some of my descriptions of injury and violence may be a bit more than what some parents would feel comfortable having their younger children read about. It's also because of emotional content, which from this point on will definitely be more geared for teenagers.

Thankies for all the lovely reviews last chapter! (does happy little dance) Yay! I would love to thank everyone who read and reviewed personally with a little note heading each new chappy, but to save on time and space I have decided to just thank everyone in one breath, and, when you review, if you WANT a personal response from me in the next chapter, just say so and I'll make sure I do that! ( Btw, dmitchell, your questions get answered next chapter. Nice attention to details! )

Okay, I know you're all raring to get on with the story now, but just one last note. Since Anakin and Luke are the main focus of this story, I try to give them both equal "screen-time" for lack of a better word. Since situations vary sometimes it's more appropriate to delve more into one character's head than the other. For instance, I would have had this chapter focus a lot more than what it does on Anakin's thoughts and feelings, but given the circumstances I couldn't do this without being repetitive. Don't worry--next chapter is more Anakin-centric and you'll finally get a nice little insight into his self. (winks)

Chapter 9

" Do you think maybe we should have told them that we're Jedi? " Luke asked Anakin quietly once the congregation had dissolved and they were wandering aimlessly down the cluttered Mos Espa street. It was a question that had been on his mind since before Dwayno's sad tale, but something--instinct, perhaps--had cautioned him to hold back on that little revelation.

After the happy news that 'Lord Vulcanus' might actually have a conscience, the beaten and worn locals had split their separate ways to take care of their own and had not been very forthcoming. They didn't ask what business these strangers had in the area. They didn't question Luke's strong resemblance to Vulcanus. They didn't ask for any help or offer any ideas on how to defeat the Sith Lords--in fact they very much acted like they were afraid even mere talk of freeing themselves from tyranny would bring the wrath of a thousand gods down upon them. They just left. They were far too busy picking up the pieces of their shattered lives to concern themselves with things like that.

Not that either Skywalker blamed them. They'd just been through a living Hell--who could blame them for wanting to take care of their wounded and scrounge for food and supplies as opposed to siding up with a pair of rebels who hadn't even known anything about their plight prior to half an hour ago? From their point of view it probably seemed like a suicidal fool's errand to try and change things, even for the better.

Anakin shook his head, keeping his steely gaze locked firmly on the path ahead. " No. It would have just gotten their hopes up. This isn't our battle. Even if it were, we'd lose."

Luke snorted. " You sound like that hot-headed Telsepian."

" He did have a point, Luke." Anakin tossed his son a this-is-hopeless look, " Maybe we just oughta…you know, do what we came here to do."

" And just leave these people to suffer? " Luke countered, disgusted at the thought. Alternate universe or no, Jedi just didn't abandon those in need of their help like that. " We _have_ to do _something_! "

" Alright, fine." Anakin agreed sardonically, " While you're getting Jabberwocked, I'll be getting the Cindray. It was nice knowing you." He turned his attention back on the road, as if all were settled.

Luke wasn't convinced. " Oh? Going to storm the place, are you? And what will you do when Darth Vader finds you? "

Anakin felt his blood turn to ice. He hadn't considered that. " Um…talk him into letting me have it? " He offered lamely. Ok, so maybe his plan wasn't perfect. Luke didn't need to go pointing it out 

" I rest my case."

" Yeah, well what's _your_ plan? Get these people killed instead of rescue your friends and save our realities? No wonder your father was so disappointed in you. You haven't even been born yet in my reality, and _already _I'm disappointed in you."

" Oh _you're_ disappointed in _me_? " Luke threw back with equal passion, " Let's talk about Darth Vader, shall we? And I don't mean the one that co-rules the Empire with Vulcanus." His voice took on a deep, guttural sound, like maybe he had a severe case of asthma and had been trying to cure it by gargling with gravel for the past fifty years, " Luke, I am your father. Turn to the dark side with me and we'll both be good little pets for Palpatine. It is pointless to resist. Rawr! "

" Hey! " Anakin returned somewhat indignantly, inwardly flinching at yet another reference to his future self, " I didn't sound like that! " The words were out of his mouth before he even had time to think about them. Automatic defense.

" How do you know? You've never met your future self."

" Well I _don't _sound like that."

" Maybe not now." Luke looked away.

" What makes you think I'm still headed down that path? " Anakin's words were as much to convince himself as Luke, " You said it yourself. Maybe I'm here because I have a chance to change things." He stepped over a lifeless farming machine, " Do you honestly think that, after hearing all you've told me, I still want to turn Sith? Believe me, I am going to do everything in my power to avoid the fate you mentioned. I can resist the dark side. I _can_."

Luke kept his vision elsewhere. Pretended to be deeply interested in a group of scraggily children following a pair of adults inside a large nondescript building that had somehow remained intact_. I shouldn't have done that_. He thought sadly.

Here they were supposed to be working as a team and all he could do was bash Anakin's spirits by constantly reminding him of a bleak future that was so horrible he himself was trying to forget it. Sure, he did it in a joking, light-hearted manner--and a lot of words tended to slip out before he'd had time to think them through--but what if, deep down, it really _was_ getting to Anakin? Neither one of them wanted that future to happen, so why was he constantly acting like it was an inescapable destiny? _Maybe because I'm afraid of how different things would be if…things were different. _

Anakin not turning to the dark side would change everything. _Everything._

Was he prepared to deal with the possibilities?

Not now. Not at this moment.

" I really hope you can." He murmured softly in reply to Anakin's statement, his voice faint and far away.

They came to a stop near what would have been a bustling street corner had Vulcanus not decided to tear the place apart.

" Alright." Anakin kicked his foot in the sand, knocked aside a piece of charred debris that he sincerely hoped wasn't someone's limb. The action didn't relieve as much of his stress as he would've liked. " Do you have a plan? Much as I hate to admit it, I don't."

" Working on it." Luke said without much certainty, the shakiest foundations of a plan taking form in his mind, " We need to get into that base. I say we sneak in. Vader and Vulcanus can't do anything to us if they don't know we're there."

" Are you out of your mind? " Anakin struggled to keep the bite out of his voice, " Of _course_ they're going to know we're there! Vulcanus is even expecting us! If nothing else, they'll be able to sense us through the Force."

" Well then what would you suggest? "

" A distraction would be nice. Draw them away from the lair long enough for us to make our move." Anakin thought that sounded like a good plan. Actually, _anything _involving Vader and Vulcanus being gone when they went after the Cindray sounded like a good plan. The guards and death traps he was sure they could handle, but if either Sith showed up they were doomed. _And if these little tales of horror are anything to go by, my evil twin is a lot less understanding I am._

A hot wind blew up, carrying with it the stench of death and decay. There were still a few more hours to go before sunset would finally arrive and at last relieve the scorched land.

_Is it just me, or is it hotter than usual here?_ The heat was starting to get to Anakin, which kinda surprised him since he'd been born and partially raised on this planet. He didn't see how his and Luke's doppelgangers could put up with living in a volcano, air-conditioning or no. They had to be hardier than banthas.

__

Luke traced a figure in the sand with the toe of his boot, deep in thought. " That could work…question is, how do we lure them away? And once we do, how do we _keep_ them away? I mean, based on what we've been hearing, our Sith doubles are the top bosses around here, and they have the entire galaxy at their feet. A little thing pops up, they'd probably just send some lackies in to handle it. It's going to take something pretty major to draw _both _of them out of the lair."

" Unless they're bored." Anakin observed, leaning back against the one good wall of a destroyed building. It was always a possibility.

Luke went over to a large pile of rubble and collapsed in the deepest part of the shade--right where the two shadows cast by the double suns overlapped.

This wasn't looking good. They needed a sturdy, solid plan: one that didn't rely heavily on Vader and Vulcanus being bored and one with at least some degree of backup should things start getting hairy.

His sister and friends were out there somewhere--probably the volcano base--enduring lord only knew what. While it seemed unlikely that Darth Vulcanus would hurt them, they were still being held somewhere against their will. How would they cope?

He mulled the situation over in his head.

Leia was a clever girl, and by now knew that the Luke that had her wasn't her brother; assuming Vulcanus hadn't told her outright. She was as intelligent as she was defiant--a true rebel down to the core. She would never put up with Vulcanus's flak. Once she learned what was going on she would defy him to the end.

Han, on the other hand, was a rebellious, quick-witted, and sharp-tongued ex-smuggler who could at times be selfish but always came through in the end. He'd saved Luke's life back on Hoth--for which Luke would always be grateful--and he'd played an instrumental role in the fall of the Empire. If there was anyone who could make the most out of a sticky situation, it was him.

Then there was Chewbacca, who was, well, Chewbacca. He was an intelligent and loyal companion who would gladly lay down his life for a friend.

Whatever Vulcanus had planned for the trio, you could bet that they would weather the storm and hold on to the last.

But just what _did _Vulcanus want with those three? Had he kidnapped them for a specific reason, or just because he could? Did he know that Leia was his sister? Did this Luke even know that he _had_ a sister?

The volume of unanswered questions kept steadily piling up.

If Vulcanus knew who Leia was, the whole group would be much safer.

If he didn't…well…Luke didn't want to travel down that path. Didn't want to think about what this twisted, cold-hearted version of him might do to his friends if they happened to anger him.

And Vader…deep worms, he'd almost forgotten about Vader!

Without even consciously realizing it, Luke broke out into a sweat and turned a shade paler than normal.

Here was the real danger, the single thing most likely to lead to the others' deaths.

The Darth Vader in this reality was the definition of evil: the fact that he murdered kids where even Vulcanus wouldn't said a great deal about his morality. Anyone who could do that would surely have no problem putting down anyone who so much as burped wrong.

Assuming Vader knew who Leia was, she might be at least reasonably safe, since, obviously, if Vader had been in the habit of killing his own kids he would never have allowed Vulcanus to grow up. But what reason would Vader have to care about Han and Chewie? If he wouldn't listen to his own son, why would he listen to the pleas of another universe's Leia should he decide to eliminate them?

'_They're in good hands.' Sure, Vulc. You keep telling yourself that. I wish I had as much faith as you._

Then again, Luke imagined he'd feel pretty confident too if he could Jabberwock.

" Luke? You alright? "

Luke almost jumped. Whipping his head sharply to the left, he startled Anakin, who had silently slipped over to join him and was now sitting at his side with his back against the wall of rubble and his knees hunched up.

" Oh. Sorry. Didn't hear you come up." Luke frowned, and Anakin could read the anxiety in his not-so-hopeful blue eyes.

Being pessimistic himself, he could relate. " Seems pretty hopeless, doesn't it? " He let out a weary sigh.

Luke shook his head and reached down to pick up a small pebble. " Nothing's ever hopeless." He said in possibly the gloomiest tone imaginable.

Anakin gave him a funny look. " Are you sure? Because you don't sound--or look--as if you believe that." Now it was his turn to frown. " You really don't have a plan, do you? "

Luke fingered the pebble absently out of nervous habit. " Beyond King Kid Killer and the Prince of Darkness being away before we infiltrate their volcano? No. It's a nice start, but it needs work. I still can't imagine what would draw their interest enough to personally investigate and stay gone for the amount of time it's going to take us."

Anakin shrugged. " Maybe we could divide our efforts. One of us creates a distraction elsewhere while the other tackles the volcano."

" But Rajad said to stick together," Luke reminded his young father, " she chose you to accompany me for a reason. She seemed pretty adamant about us not getting separated." He reached up and lightly massaged his aching temple with two fingers. " Besides, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to face my doppelganger alone, much less _both _our doppelgangers alone. Not to sound all pessimistic here, but we don't even know that this idea will work. I mean, something as important as the Cindray--they're not just going to walk off and leave it unguarded where anyone can get it, especially if they know we want it. They probably don't even trust their most loyal troops around it. It's small and portable--maybe one of them keeps it with him at all times."

Anakin felt his spirits sink even farther down the metaphorical toilet. " I hate to point this out, but if that's the case what are we going to do about it? "

Luke shook his head and threw the pebble he'd been playing with at the remains of a home. " I don't know. I just…don't." This little trip through space-time was turning out to be harder than he ever could have imagined.

Again, his gaze swept the ruined city, searching for…what? Signs of hope? Answers? Those were in lacking supply.

All around them the living were mourning their losses; preparing the dearly deceased for burial, or cremation, or however they chose to lay them to rest. For the most part, they were ignoring Luke and Anakin. Every once in a while a nervous eye would twitch their way, but that was the extent of it.

Alarming how many bodies had nasty burns. Apparently Vader wasn't the only Sith in these parts that could throw fire. Sad.

" Anakin, can I ask you a question? "

Anakin didn't know why, but something about the way Luke asked that made him feel a little better about this whole mess. For the first time since arriving in this warped universe, the ghost of a smile played at the corners of his mouth. " Sure, Son."

Luke blinked in surprise; this was the first time an Anakin not wearing a black body suite had called him 'Son'. Lifting his chin, he met Anakin's gaze. " You just called me 'Son'."

Anakin waved it aside as if it were no big deal. " Just trying it on. Don't get used to it. Now, what were you going to ask me? "

Luke smiled faintly. Perhaps there really was hope for this Anakin. " Ok, just for the sake of pretending, pretend that you're Darth Vader. _This_ universe's Darth Vader, and not the one I was telling you about earlier back on the better Tatooine. You're stronger than Vulcanus…"

Anakin's smile broadened. " I'm already liking this."

" …and you can do everything we heard about. But you're also very evil and will kill someone for so much as burping wrong. Now let's pretend that Vulcanus, for whatever reason, has captured three prisoners: a man, a woman, and a wookie. None of them are being very cooperative, and you are not pleased. You're thinking about killing them, but then you learn the woman is your daughter, so, naturally, you change your mind about her. The other two are really rubbing you the wrong way though. Do you go ahead and kill them? "

" Sure," Anakin answered without missing a beat, " I Jabberwock them! "

" What is your _fixation _with Jabberwocking? "

Anakin's smile changed into a smirk. " I just think it would be nice, that's all."

" You didn't seem to like it when Vulcanus did it."

" I don't like it thrown _at_ me, but I'd like to be able to do it." His humor faded. " I bet the other me Jabberwocks all the time." He muttered darkly, reminding Luke of the child that always complains when it's sibling gets to do something it doesn't.

Luke let it go. He didn't have anything to say to that, and he couldn't argue that the ability to Jabberwock would be a major plus as far as succeeding in their mission went.

" So you really _would_ kill them? " He pried, changing the subject back to Han and Chewie's imagined predicament, " I mean, even if you knew it would break your daughter's heart? "

" Hey, you said I was evil, remember? " Anakin's voice was the verbal equivalent of a shrug.

Luke started to say something in reply, and was cut off by a soft, feminine voice. " Believe me, you're nowhere near evil."

Out from behind the toppled earthen wall of the ruined building next door emerged a creature neither Skywalker had ever seen before. About the size of a jawa, it resembled a feline standing upright on it's two hind legs. From the tips of it's large triangular ears to the tip of it's extremely bushy tail it was completely covered in long, glossy white fur that shone with a golden glean in direct sunlight. Each of it's four slender limbs ended in paws with five toes; four up front, one in the back. Two sparkling black, almond-shaped eyes, a tiny pink nose, and a delicately curved mouth adorned a face that was shaped something akin to a triangle without the sharp edges. 

Whatever species she was, most would agree that the newcomer was an extremely beautiful creature. Even the way she carried herself spoke of a special kind of elegance and grace that were rare to come by. Her sudden appearance made Anakin and Luke spring to their feet.

" Who are you? " The credit for asking the first question went to Anakin. He was curious about this strange new being that somehow knew enough about him to have a solid opinion on whether or not he was evil, but also skeptical. You never knew who you could trust these days.

The stranger's quiet voice was as soft as silken lace and very pleasing to the ear. " Forgive my interruption, my name is Maya." She whipped her overly-fluffy tail up in front of her nose playfully. " I'm a Senttian._"_

Luke brightened. " A Senttian? Then you know about the Cindray… "

"…and who we are? " Anakin finished.

The Senttian who had revealed herself as Maya took a step forward, but she needn't have bothered. Anakin and Luke were already covering the distance between them; stepping over and around the hot chunks of blasted sand, splintered wood, and twisted metal wreckage littering the area. A battered landspeeder stuck halfway out from under a huge section of crumbling wall; it's crushed, dented plating reflecting brightly in the sunlight. So brightly, in fact, that Luke had to shield his eyes. Sleek, swept-back handles jutted out feebly from the wreckage, and Anakin thought it a shame that such a fine example of desert transportation was reduced to scrap metal.

" Yes on both counts." Maya answered once her company was within comfortable conversational range. " I know all about the Cindray and what's happened to it. I also know quite a bit about you, Anakin and Luke Skywalker. You're not from this universe. Who, may I ask, sent you here? "

" A Senttian called Rajad." Luke explained readily, " She told us all about the disappearance of the Cindray, said she'd specifically chosen us to go on a mission to retrieve it. Long story short, we accepted, touched a fragment of the Cindray, and ended up here."

" Ah, Rajad." Maya's tone was laden with the utmost respect. " She's a wise mentor, much wiser than I. May I see the Cindray splinter? "

" Sure. It's power is all used up though." Luke shoved his hand into his pocket and produced the shard of Cindray he and Anakin had used to make their trip. He handed it over to Maya. For a creature with paws instead of hands, her digits were surprisingly dexterous. She had no problem keeping the slim slice of crystal from slipping out of her grasp.

Maya studied the item for a bit; it's washed-out, pink image reflecting in both eyes. Then she fixed her sights back on the two young Jedi standing before her. " The situation is indeed critical, my friends. Two years ago I used the crystal to travel to this universe, but since I planned on staying more than a few days I took a companion and had him travel back to our own reality, as is the procedure for extended stays. He was supposed to come back and retrieve me a month ago, but he never did. That's when I discovered that the crystal had fallen into dangerous hands. As you may have figured out, Vulcanus and Vader have the Cindray, and they will not part with it voluntarily."

" Then they will have to do it involuntarily." Anakin proclaimed boldly, sounding a heck of a lot braver than he felt.

Maya shook her head sadly. " You have much spirit, young one, but spirit alone will not defeat your Sith counterparts. I can help you with some information, but first I must know exactly who it is I'm speaking to. I'm sure Rajad has already explained that we Senttians are an inquisitive species, eager to learn and observe. As individuals, we travel afar, searching for the answers to age-old questions and studying that which fascinates us. Whenever we get together, we share our findings and engage in philosophical conversations." She paused, let that sink in.

When neither Skywalker appeared lost or offered any comment, she continued. " As it just so happens, my field of expertise is the Skywalker family, especially you two. I've been captivated by them ever since I first came upon Anakin as a Jedi Knight and witnessed Luke and his rebel friends defeat the Empire. From that point on, I studied them with a keen passion, traveling back and forth and even sideways in time. So far, I've observed and recorded the Anakins and Lukes of four different universes, this one included. I know there are tons more out there, but my goal to catalog and chronicle as many as I can is still in it's preliminary stages. If you can both tell me a bit about yourselves, I'll better know what advice to give you"

" Where do I start? " Anakin sounded almost exhausted, " All I know for sure is that I'm from _his_ past…" he inclined his head towards Luke, " and that I'm nowhere near as evil or powerful as this universe's Darth Vader. Oh, and I really hate Darth Vulcanus."

" Me too." Luke murmered quietly.

Maya gave the pair a sympathetic nod. " Ok, Anakin. Before you got tangled up in this mess, what were the most major recent events that happened to you? "

Anakin frowned. " My mother died, and I was fighting Count Dooku when suddenly, just as I was getting the better of him, _poof_! I'm talking to Luke in the future." Alright, so he _hadn't_ been getting the best of Dooku, but being trounced by an AU version of his own son was embarrassing enough. Maya didn't need to know _all_ the little specifics, now did she?

" How would you describe your relationship with Palpatine? "

Anakin's head jerked back in surprise at the unexpected question. He gave Maya an odd look. " My….relationship…with Palpatine? " He repeated slowly, not quite sure he'd heard right. 

" Yes."

" Well it's…fine." An uneasy feeling settled over him like a dark cloud, " I mean, I don't _love _him or anything, but he's a good friend."

" Careful who you call a friend. " Luke warned, but said nothing more.

Anakin looked away.

Maya closed her paw over the Cindray shard, and when she opened it a fraction of an instant later it was gone. Shifting those ever-inquisitive eyes back to Anakin, she pried deeper. " Anakin? What has Luke told you about the future? "

" Quite a bit." Anakin admitted grimly, that heavy feeling of melancholy he always got when imagining Luke's morbid future weighing down on him like a ton of bricks, " I know that I turn to the Dark Side and kill Obi-Wan, that I become Darth Vader, and that I die right after turning back to the light. I also know that Padmé dies and that I apparently never even got to _see _my kids until after they were already grown up, and only then because they were part of the rebellion, which I was trying to destroy…"

" You cut off my hand," Luke interrupted, holding his right hand up into the air and pulling his sleeve down just enough to reveal the faint pinkish scar encircling his wrist. Rather than serious or resentful, his tone was actually a cheerful contrast to the situation. " Don't leave that out--story just wouldn't have the same punch."

Anakin smiled in spite of himself. " Hey, I'm sure you had it coming." He teased, then turned his attention back to Maya. " I think that's everything." He raised a questioning eyebrow at Luke. " Isn't it? "

" Not unless you want to hear about my less-than-glorifying trip through the trash compactor. Or how I nearly froze to death on Hoth. Or how _you_ tried to freeze _me _in carbonite."

Maya snickered softly, obsidian eyes glittering with amusement. " Alright, now I definitely know who I'm dealing with!" She nodded her head gently towards Anakin, " Padawan Anakin." The gesture was cloned for Luke, " I Will Not Fight You Luke."

" Hey! " Luke's protest was in good humor, " ' _I Will Not Fight You _' Luke? What's that supposed to mean? "

" Means you don't fight." Anakin chuckled, happy for the chance to have something to laugh at.

Luke's face was a comical mix of surprise and confusion. " That's ridiculous, of course I…" He paused, his accusing eyes narrowing on Maya, " You know our universe, don't you? It's one of the ones you studied."

Maya smiled--an odd feature to see on a creature with a crooked mouth that so strongly resembled a feline's. " Indeed it is." Whereas her tone had been something very close to somber before, it now took on a lighter, happier note, " When one travels to other universes, it helps if one doesn't confuse a person with their AU doppelganger. So that I know who I'm talking about when I record my observations, I tag whichever version of the person I happen to be studying at the time with a sort of 'nickname' to help me remember them. That way I can compare and contrast that version with other versions freely and without confusion." She shifted a guilty look to Luke, " Sorry, but that incident where you wouldn't fight your father back on the second Death Star kinda stuck with me. I thought it was the perfect description of your character."

" What, the other mes all fight? " Luke laughed, though he knew the idea wasn't so far-fetched.

Maya was thoughtful. " Actually, all the ones I've seen so far have. I've even heard Vulcanus say he'd fight to the death. Granted, that _was_ for the last Sedda-muffin at a popular diner, but he's definitely more violent than you."

" The last Sedda-muffin? " Anakin echoed.

" Yes. He and Vader both put their hands on it at the same time. There was a brief argument, then Vader tricked Vulcanus into looking the other way while he snatched the muffin. You see, there was a sign by the door that read '_Shoes are required to eat in this establishment._' Vulcanus couldn't control his urge to go up and scribble' _Socks can eat wherever they want' _beneath it."

Both Skywalkers and Maya had a good laugh at that.

A few passerby gave them an odd stare before continuing on their way.

" This is crazy," Anakin shook his head, his grin threatening to burst into another chuckle at any moment, " As Sith, Luke and I fight over _muffins_? "

" Among other things." Maya said, but now her smile faded.

Luke felt much of his own humor die away as he followed the Senttian's gaze off to the side where a distraught and dispossessed family were combing through the remnants of their former home. His voice became serious. " I don't understand, Maya. If Vulcanus is merely a twisted version of me, how could he do something like this? I could never…"

__

" Of course you couldn't," Maya agreed even before he had a chance to finish, " that's part of what makes you you. You were raised on your aunt and uncle's moisture farm. They were kind, caring people. They taught you most of your morals, values, and other important life-lessons. You were a product of your upbringing, and you turned out good. Your sense of right and wrong and empathy for others are especially well developed.

__

" Now, you may not believe this, but Vulcanus isn't just a 'warped' you, he **_is _**you; it is the same soul existing simultaneously in all universes. The same applies to the relationship between Anakin and his AU doppelgangers and every soul that has ever or will ever exist. The thing that separates you both from your Sith counterparts--other than the fact that they're a lot stronger than you with the Force--is the different life experiences you've all had. In Vulcanus's case, he was raised exclusively by Vader from the age of four. For this reason, he lacks many of the ethics and valuable lessons this Luke learned from his uncle and aunt. Vader never taught them to him.

__

"Instead, Vader taught Vulcanus that might is right, even when it's wrong. He was taught that it was okay to kill anyone he didn't like. He was taught that he and Vader were the all-powerful lords of the galaxy, and that virtually every other living creature was not only inferior, unfeeling, and undeserving of sympathy, but also meaningless. As a child he was constantly told that he was better than everyone else and spoiled beyond belief.

__

"As a result of all these influences Vulcanus grew up to be very arrogant and sure of himself. He knows no humility. He's used to getting everything he wants and winning every challenge he faces. His worldviews are so warped that he doesn't really understand the concepts of 'good' and 'evil'. To him they are just meaningless adjectives people slap on things to try and confuse him. Had he been raised on the farm exactly as you were, Luke, he would've literally been another you, only more powerful."

Anakin snorted. " Why is it our Sith counterparts are so much stronger than us? I know Vader's a lot older than me, and if Vulcanus was trained by him then it would make sense for him to be stronger than Luke, but from everything I've seen and heard these guys are more powerful than me, Luke, Obi-Wan, and the entire Jedi Council all put together. How did that happen? "

__

Maya turned and headed towards a short, squat building; one of the few that had managed to survive Vulcanus's wrath. Perhaps it's proximity to the ground had made it less of a target than it's taller cousins. It was a comfy little pub that had no doubt seen shiploads of onworlders and offworlders alike cross it's sandy threshold. " Come. Let us get out of this heat, and I will explain."

Anakin and Luke were only too happy to comply.


	10. The History Of Evil Anakin

****

A/N: _Here they are--the long-awaited explanations! This is a huge chapter, but rest assured that the following chapters will be much more normal-sized._

Chapter 10

Inside the pub was dark, disorderly, and abandoned. There wear almost no windows, and the distinct lack of ventilation meant that the stuffy, languid air stunk heavily with left-over cuisine and the smoke of death-sticks long since spent. Chairs were pulled out here and there at odd angles. Half-eaten food littered the polished tops of tables and counters. A few waitress droids stood slumped forward wherever they had happened to be at the time of crisis; all the light gone from their artificial eyes.

Anakin knew the unanimated droids had been programmed to shut off in the event of an emergency to allow the business's living patrons a better chance of escape. The coppery gold plating of one reminded him of C-3PO. Sad to think that, in the future, his own creation wouldn't even been able to remember him._ I hate to even think this, but I prefer this reality over Luke's. Sure, we're both evil Sith Lords, but at least we're alive and well._

To the far back of the room--over the sea of tables and chairs--rose an elevated platform several feet longer than it was wide. On a busy night, entertainers would gather there to perform all sorts of music, dances, and exotic tricks in order to try and grab the attention of their more-often-than-not preoccupied audiences. Now not so much as a forgotten instrument lingered onstage. Nonetheless, the velvety red curtains were drawn back, as if in anticipation of the next performer.

It was to this platform that Maya headed, drifting between tables and chairs like a furry white ghost.

Hot on her heels, Anakin followed, albeit less gracefully.

" Ow! " The Jedi padawan yelped when he rapped his knee on an overturned chair. His eyes were only beginning to adjust to the nearly lightless setting.

" Careful," Luke cautioned from somewhere behind him, " I hear those chairs come out of nowhere. Use the Force this time."

" Hah, very funny." Anakin returned, the incident in Rajad's cave still all too fresh in his mind, " I just wasn't paying attention is all."

" You make that a habit, don't you? "

Before Anakin could come up with a witty comeback--and he had a good one ready on the tip of his tongue--Maya reached the stage, leapt up onto it, and turned around to face them. " Please, do have a seat."

The Skywalkers did as instructed and sat at a choice table for two right in front of the stage; one that just so happened to have a perfect view of the bar. They were so focused on Maya that neither of them noticed the elegant sweets and flowers laid out before them, or the pink card that passionately proclaimed: _' If all the water in the universe were ink and all the land paper, I could not being to write of my love for you….'_

Onstage, Maya was perfectly still. It was too dark to read her expression, but both Anakin and Luke could sense her unease, and both suddenly felt a little less good about whatever it was they were about to hear.

" You've come for the Cindray." Maya's tone was suddenly as serious as her posture, all traces of the humor she'd been expressing earlier gone, "And I want you to have the best chance of getting it. I tried earlier, but alas I am very young and not yet capable of things like teleportation and walking through solid objects. Even my shape shifting is limited." She looked almost embarrassed. " I wish I could do more, but in this instance knowledge is the only power I can give you. The more you know about your enemies, the greater your chances for success. While my studies here are far from complete, I have put together a fairly detailed compilation of visuals from Evil Anakin's past which may prove…"

" Hold on here," Anakin cut in quickly, " _Evil _Anakin? I thought he was Darth Vader! "

Suddenly the room seemed a whole lot darker.

The shadowy outline of Maya remained as stiff as a statue. Not even the tip of her tail twitched. " Well he is, but if I were to call him that in my journals I'd have to be a bit more specific. Despite the tag he isn't _truly _evil, but when I first encountered him I thought him to be. I will share my visuals with you, but I warn you ahead of time that you're both going to see some things you wont like, especially Anakin."

Anakin forced a wry chuckle. " Why not? I've already _heard _a ton of things I didn't like; getting the visuals isn't going to scare me."

Luke had to admire his courage. If he were in Anakin's place, and if he had had to go through everything he had, he wasn't so sure he'd be coping as well. Losing loved ones was bad enough, but finding out you were going to be the _cause _of losing those loved ones went so far beyond horrible it was worse than being digested alive over a period of a thousand years in the stomach of a _sarlaac_.

Black as they were, Maya's eyes still seemed to penetrate the gloom. Even before she spoke, Anakin knew her gaze rested with him. " You have a brave soul, but this will be hard for you. Just remember, Anakin, everything you hear, everything you _see,_ is Evil Anakin, not you."

" Understood." Without even realizing, Anakin laid his hand to rest on the card.

Luke couldn't see very well in such dim lighting, but when his fingers brushed against the box of sweets he looked down and noticed the outline of the flowers and a splash of pink under Anakin's left hand. _What, are we on a date here or something?_

He was about to bring the matter to Anakin's attention just for the sake of giggles when the wall behind Maya suddenly blazed to life with a brilliant bluish light. Maya stepped off to the side and the glowing apparition took the shape of a giant rectangle--a viewscreen.

As they all watched, the solid blue color of the screen was swiftly replaced with the image of a little blond-haired boy who looked between the ages of seven and nine racing through the marketplace of a happier Mos Espa in a dull gray outfit.

" Hey! " Anakin exclaimed, " That's me when I was little! "

Luke's eyes widened slightly in mild surprise. " You looked like _that_? " It was hard to imagine such a cute little boy could be the cause of so much misery.

" At one time." Anakin said dryly. Seeing the images on the screen brought his childhood back to life, and the memories saddened him. Those days were dead. He would never be that innocent little boy again.

Onscreen, the child Anakin dashed to an almost-finished pod hidden out back of the junk shop and began working feverishly on it. He looked so excited, so _happy_.

Maya's words were so soft that her company almost didn't hear them. " As hard as this may be to believe, that's Evil Anakin." 

_It_ **_is _**hard to believe, the grown-up Anakin thought in silent amazement, _I know this! I remember being in his place doing the exact thing he's_ _doing! _He knew what happened next, and was not at all surprised when a group of his old friends arrived in the scene and startled him, causing him to accidentally fry one of the pod's circuits with the small hand-held _gatla_ he'd borrowed from the shop.

Child Anakin became frustrated and his friends all laughed at him.

" _What's the matter Ani, blow a fuse? _" Young Greedo's voice came over loud and clear, like in a movie.

" _Come on Ani, that thing's never going to fly! _" A little girl agreed, " _Why don't you come play with us?_ "

" _I will once I get it done._" Child Anakin sounded harried. He bent back over, re-immersing himself in the machine's guts.

" Oh, how cute! " Luke chuckled.

Anakin only shook his head. " You won't be thinking that for long."

Maya spoke. " This universe started out exactly the same as yours, save one thing: Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, was born with five times the midi-chlorian this Anakin was."

__

Anakin was visibly startled. " _Five times! _" He echoed, his voice becoming a tad nasal, " How! Why! "

To the far left of the bright screen, the shadowy silhouette of Maya answered. " How were the midi-chlorians able to impregnate your mother with you in first place? Why did they specifically choose her? Why five times more midi-chlorian instead of, say, seven…or ten? If we are going to discuss the how's and why's of the situation, we will be here all night. Alternate universes are spontaneous. There's no rhyme or reason to the way they differentiate in the specific ways that they do, or why they sometimes seem to favor or disfavor one person or event over another.

__

" In any case, being born with such a high midi-chlorian count gave this universe's Anakin a huge advantage over his AU doppelgangers. He was so strong with the Force that by the time he was five he could already float things around, even without having been trained and having no knowledge at all of the Force. It just came so easy for him. Thankfully, this universe's Shmi had him keep his abilities a secret 

"By the time Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan arrived on the scene, little Anakin was already almost their equal in Force abilities. What he lacked was skill and refinement. Just like in your universe, Qui-Gon sensed his potential to be a great Jedi. Just like in your universe, Qui-Gon died early on in battle with Darth Maul, and the task of training young Skywalker fell to Obi-Wan. History ran it's course with nothing major changing from your universe until the Clone Wars rolled around."

As she was saying this, images sped by the screen in rapid-fire succession--images of Child Anakin slaving away in Watto's shop, Child Anakin floating things around when nobody was looking, Qui-Gon, 14-year old Padmé, the pod race, Obi-Wan, Darth Maul, Child Anakin's heroic flight, Child Anakin training with Obi-Wan….all of that flashed by in a five-second blur.

When the images finally slowed back down to real-time, Anakin was startled to find himself staring at his identical mirror-image, right down to the Jedi garb and padawan braid! _Wow, he looks **exactly** like me! _Despite having braced himself for such an experience--after all, it _was _another him--seeing an exact carbon-copy of himself whizzing through the busy airways of Coruscant in a bold yellow speeder in hot pursuit of Padmé's would-be assassin was just too eerily close to home to ignore. In every way, it was a perfect replay of the past.

Well, _almost _perfect--it seemed to Anakin that his evil twin was slightly more in control of the situation than he had been. Not to say his driving was any less--how had Luke put it?…scary?

Anakin liked to think of it as being more adventurous.

Apparently, Evil Anakin shared the same views. He flew between a pair of power couplings, eliciting a jittery complaint from his master. _" Anakin…how many times…have I told…you not to fly between…power couplings? _"

Evil Anakin just laughed, a wild, maniacal grin splitting his face.

" How about that? " Luke chortled, " Even evil you can't drive! Poor Obi-Wan."

" Hey, don't be too hard on him. He's actually doing a little better than I did." Anakin admitted honestly, never taking his eyes off the screen.

He never saw the look of horrified disbelief Luke sent his way.

Without warning, the images suddenly fast-forwarded the way they had before, and now both Skywalkers recognized the inside of the Lars' home. Evil Anakin was sitting at the table with much younger versions of Owen and Beru, along with an older man who was missing half of his right leg.

_Cliegg Lars? _Luke only recognized him from old pictures and stills. The man had died when he was just an infant. Everything he knew about him came from Owen and Beru and the stories they told.

Cliegg was speaking, but his words were so heavily muffled for some reason that they could not be understood. Nevertheless, the solemn faces of everyone present betrayed the fact that this was not a happy little gathering by any stretch of the imagination.

A tear welled up in the corner of Anakin's eye. He didn't have to hear the words to know what his stepfather was saying. He would never forget for as long as he lived.

Evil Anakin's reaction to the news was to slouch back in his seat and glare daggers at the wall. He was very obviously upset, but the emotion that far eclipsed that anxiety was anger. Indeed, he looked almost as if he were ready to jump up and murder Cliegg just for breaking the news to him.

Maya continued the story. " The first major turning point for this universe was the death of Anakin's mother at the hands of the Tusken Raiders. Anakin was so devastated by his loss that he flew into a violent rage, destroying every living thing within the Tusken camp. It was there, by accident, that he learned to throw Force fire."

The scene shifted again. A blue blade, guided by a furious Anakin, split the screen, slashing and rending wildly. The Tuskens never stood a chance. They were cut down where they stood, their death-cries muted by Maya's decree. A spark of something truly frightening crossed Evil Anakin's eye, and when he raised his left hand to a fleeing Tusken--perhaps to try and knock it down with the Force--an incinerating jet of fire shot out and caught his victim ablaze.

This totally surprised Evil Anakin, who's expression quickly changed from murderous to awe-struck. His eyes kept ticking back and forth between his hand to the flaming Tusken. Then his face settled into a lethal smirk, and he threw the fire again--this time at a Tusken child that was trying to escape from a nearby hut.

Anakin and Luke never got to see if the attack hit the child or not, though it almost certainly had.

The next scene showed a distraught Evil Anakin walking away from the smoldering remains of the Tusken camp. He was cradling the limp body of his mother, who was wrapped from head to toe in an assortment of torn rags.

" The next critical turning point came in the battle with Count Dooku."

Right on cue, the scene changed to fit the description.

Now Evil Anakin and Obi-Wan entered a hangar just as Count Dooku was preparing to leave.

Anakin bristled at the sight of his nemesis. " I remember that! That's the fight I was plucked out of! " He felt something wet trickle down his cheeks, and realized he'd been crying a little more than he'd thought. Before anyone else had a chance to see, he quickly wiped the tears away with the back of his hand. Now was not the time for mourning.

" _You go in slowly and I'll_…."

" _I'll take him NOW! _"

" _No Anakin, no! No! _"

The infamous exchange took place, and Anakin physically flinched when his double rushed the Sith Lord exactly as he had. _Foolish! So foolish! Why did I ever think that would be a good idea?_

Hindsight really _was_ 20-20. Seeing the action replayed back to him opened his eyes to the ugly truth: he had been an idiot. A hot-headed, impulsive idiot.

Count Dooku's hand shot out just the way it had before…only this time he never got the chance to throw any Force lightning, because Evil Anakin's own hand had had shot out an instant sooner and he was struck full in the chest with a fireball.

" _Anakin, how did you **do**_ _that! _" Came Obi-Wan's yelp of surprise.

" _Power of the Force, Master_." Evil Anakin replied proudly, keeping his lightsaber trained on Dooku.

The white-haired Sith had been forced to drop to the floor and roll to extinguish his clothing. Evil Anakin lunged at him, and he managed to regain his footing and dive aside an instant before he would've been slashed on the diagonal.

Still, the blow had weakened him. He reached for his lightsaber and for his effort came only a fraction of a second away from getting what would have been the shortest haircut he'd ever had in his life. Evil Anakin was not a patient little Jedi.

" The fight was incredibly brief. What Anakin lacked in sabering skill and technique he more than made up for in his connection with the Force"

Dooku had his saber now, but it didn't do him any good because his hand was liberated from his arm before he could use it. With a sharp cry of pain, the injured Sith staggered backwards until his backside slammed against a wall. In an act of desperation he thrust his remaining hand forward and sent writhing tendrils of Force lightning at Evil Anakin.

The effort was futile. Evil Anakin held his lightsaber up in front of him and absorbed every last bit of the charge into the blade.

Dooku tried a different approach. Using the Force, he brought a mass of rocks down from the earthen ceiling right over his foe's head.

This didn't impress Evil Anakin, who caught the falling debris with his own Force powers and tossed it aside with an ease that would put Master Yoda to shame. " _Your_ _age is catching up with you, Dooku_." He snickered with glee, " _I'm just a padawan and already my Jedi powers are far beyond yours_." He closed in on his adversary, lightsaber poised for the death-blow.

" _Anakin! No! He is helpless, we can take him alive!_ " Obi-Wan may just as well have been screaming at the wall.

Though he had to have heard, Evil Anakin lunged forward and chopped the old Sith's head off anyway.

" Alright! " The non-evil version of Anakin cheered as he leaned forward in his seat, " Now _that's _what I like to see! "

Apparently, it wasn't what AU Obi-Wan liked to see. The screen faded to black on what appeared to be the start of a heated argument between him and Evil Anakin.

Maya continued the narrative, letting the images speak for themselves." Afterwards Anakin secretly married Padmé and continued for the next three years to fight in the Clone Wars, but here's where this universe really began to diverge from yours. You see, all throughout his life, Evil Anakin's exceptionally strong Force powers and countless victories had served to make him arrogant and self-assured, even more so than other Anakins. Such an easy victory over the dark lord Count Dooku only made him all the more conceited. Having discovered that his new powers were rooted in darkness and rage, he began to wonder what more he might be capable of. Behind everyone's backs, he began experimenting with the dark side of the Force"

Flashes of Evil Anakin fighting various foes flew by the screen in a few blinks of an eye. His Force powers had indeed grown: in some instances he threw fire, in others lightning. In one scene it even looked like he threw ice, but that image streaked by so fast it was impossible to be sure. This time the viewscreen didn't mess around with fades--it just went black.

When it next lit up, Anakin and Luke almost didn't recognize imposing young man in the center frame.

" Wow, is that _me_!" Anakin gasped, barely able to believe his eyes.

" Evil Anakin." Maya supplied.

Anakin shook his head quickly, a little irritated that the Senttian would think him that dense. " No--I know that--I mean, is that how I'm going to _look_ in a few years? "

" More or less."

Anakin thought she sounded a bit sad about that, though he didn't see why. In his eyes, his future-self was perfect; he'd filled out his form nicely and no longer looked even the least bit scrawny or gawky. His padawan braid was gone and his wavy blond hair came down to his shoulders. His face, too, had changed a little--the soft contours of youth traded in for the visage of a mature adult. Despite all the battles he had been through, not so much as a single lonely scratch tainted his image.

Under the cover of darkness, he smiled a bit. _That is definitely how I want to look._ Then a darker thought reared it's ugly head. _Wait, what does Maya mean by 'more or less'?_

He was about to ask when the cat-like Senttian started up again. " By the time Anakin attained the level of Jedi Knight, he was already the most powerful Jedi that had ever existed. Whenever he wasn't out fighting the good fight or spending quality time with Padmé, he trained with the Council's elite lightsaber duelists, intent on becoming the best of the best."

Now Evil Anakin sparred with Jedi Master Cin Drallig in one of the Jedi Temple's many training rooms. Though Cin was obviously more skilled with the lightsaber, the mock-duel seemed to be pretty even, with both Jedi getting in good 'hits' here and there. Evil Anakin appeared calm, in control, and completely at ease.

"_Very good_," the older man was saying, " _Excellent job of relaxing your mind and tapping into you hidden intuition. Your connection to the living Force is very strong_."

Evil Anakin flashed him a satisfied grin. " _I know_."

" _Still_," Cin cautioned, his displeasure at the incredibly arrogant remark thinly veiled, " _You never know whom or what you will be up against. When battling with the lightsaber, be mindful of your opponent's attack-schema and the position of his hands. The faintest twitch of the wrist can betray the nature of the attack. Sometimes_, _it_ _isn't the strength of your blow but rather the angle of your swipe that counts most_."

To illustrate this point, the white-haired Jedi Master drew his lightsaber into a swift downward arc that curved up at precisely the right angle to bump his opponent's blue blade right out of his hand.

Evil Anakin retaliated by flinging his now-empty right hand out in front of him and blasting Cin with a stream of blue-white ice substance.

Cin leapt back, dropping his own lightsaber and barely stifling a cry. His entire right forearm from hand to elbow was covered in a fine white frost.

" _Oops! Sorry! _" Evil Anakin apologized, and to his credit he appeared to really mean it, " _Reflex. It won't happen again_." He lowered his head.

Cin shot him a severe look. " _See to it that it doesn't, or else you can look for a new sabering tutor. You're a great pupil Anakin--extremely gifted--but you really must work on keeping your more…unusual…abilities under control._"

__

EvilAnakin nodded respectfully. " _I will try_."

Cin frowned, but it was more out of concern than anything else. " _You're going to have to do more than try, Anakin. I mean it. I've been talking with some of your other instructors, and we all know you don't mean to, but you **do **have a tendency to get a bit rough during some of these training_ _exercises. Makaji says you nearly sliced her arm off a week ago, and before that you Force shoved Master Windu into the floor so hard it cracked a few ribs and knocked all the wind out of him for a good five minutes. Not to beat a dead tauntaun, but you really are going to have to be_ _more careful. Force-wise, you happen to be a lot stronger than us, and you can seriously injure someone without meaning to_."

Evil Anakin quirked an eyebrow at his mentor. " _So you're saying…what? My Force powers are too strong, don't use them?_ "

The older Jedi shook his head and picked at the frost on his arm. " _No. What I'm saying is that you should exercise more control and tone it down a bit when practicing with your fellow Jedi. Remember, these fights aren't real. You don't have to prove anything. Try not to get so carried away, or else before long no-one's going to want to risk practicing with you._" He recovered his lightsaber and turned to leave. " _That concludes our lesson for today. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to thaw out my arm_."

Evil Anakin watched him go, and the scene faded.

Maya filled the gap. " As the clone wars progressed, the Jedi began to fear Anakin more and more. His loyalties seemed questionable, and his vengeful nature, brash behavior, and fiery temper combined with his continuous defiance of their orders made him both too unreliable and too unpredictable to be trusted. He would have been kicked out of the Order if not for the fact that Yoda and the other Council members feared such an action would make him by far their most dangerous enemy.

__

" Anakin didn't learn of Padmé's pregnancy until she was only a couple weeks away from giving birth, but from the night he found out he started having bad dreams. All I know about these nightmares is that they apparently involved Padmé's premature death, and that Anakin feared they were prophetic visions of the future. Thus, when Palpatine finally revealed himself as Darth Sidious and told him he could save Padmé's life if only he would do as he was told, a desperate Anakin bought every word"

__

-Flash- Evil Anakin and Palpatine were talking alone in the hallway just outside the Senator's office. The words were too muted to hear, but it was a predominantly one-sided conversation with Palpatine doing most of the talking and an overly-grave Evil Anakin adding a word here or a nod there.

_-Flash- _Palpatine's office. The old senator/Sith lord was down and cornered against his own window with the imposing figure of Mace Windu closing in on him. He lashed out with Force lightning, only to have it deflected off of Mace's violet lightsaber and back into his face; wrecking havoc upon his features.

" There goes my acid-bath theory." Luke murmured.

Normally this remark would have drawn a small chuckle from Anakin, but by this point he was so immersed in the little history 'film' that Luke could have offered him the flowers and called him his gay lover and he wouldn't have even noticed.

Onscreen, things were really heating up.

Evil Anakin flew into the room, and now the sped-up images slowed to real-time.

" _He is a traitor, Anakin!_ " Palpatine was almost screaming.

" _He's the traitor, stop him! _" Mace shouted with equal passion.

Evil Anakin lingered in the doorway, the picture of confusion.

Palpatine pressed harder. " _Come to your senses, boy. The Jedi are in revolt. They will betray you, just as they betrayed me_."

Still, Evil Anakin hesitated. He looked very unsure of what to do.

Mace moved in closer to Palpatine, and the Sith Lord's howls of pain intensified as more of his lightning arced back on him.

Again, he tried to sway Evil Anakin. " _I can't…I give up. Help me. I am weak…I am too weak. Don't kill me. I give up. I'm dying. Anakin…I have the power to save the one you love. You must choose. You must stop him._"

" _You Sith disease_," Mace grunted, "_ I am going to end this once and for all_."

This seemed to break Evil Anakin out of his trance. Quickly, he rushed to the fallen senator's side and pinned Mace with a steely gaze. " _You can't kill him, Master. He must stand trial_."

" _He has too much control of the Senate and the courts,_" Mace pointed out, " _he is too dangerous to be kept alive_."

" _I'm too weak. Please don't kill me_." Palpatine pleaded feebly. He had stopped his lightning, but he was still trapped under Mace's poised lightsaber.

" _It's not the Jedi way…_" Evil Anakin continued.

But Mace's mind was made. His lightsaber came down….right onto a humming blue blade.

" _Are you even listening? _" Evil Anakin hissed, " _You **can't**_ _kill him_! "

Mace suddenly flew back into the wall with the force of a small rocket--the victim of a tremendous Force push. The impact jarred his lightsaber out of his hand and he crumpled to the floor like a discarded rag-doll.

Though he was free now to stand up, Palpatine chose instead to remain cowered in the corner of the windowsill like a small wounded animal. Mace was already getting back up and he apparently didn't want to deal with that.

The dark-skinned Jedi master regained his lightsaber and gave Evil Anakin a look usually only reserved for escapees from the mental hospital. " _Anakin, **what**_ _are you **doing! **The man is evil! _"

" _He has done nothing! _" Evil Anakin maintained vehemently, " _When I came in this room all I saw was a Jedi attacking an innocent man_."

Mace reactivated his lightsaber and pointed it at a trembling Palpatine. " **_He_** is not **innocent**. He is a Sith Lord, and he has corrupted the Republic! "

" _Prove it_."

Mace was taken aback. Clearly he hadn't anticipated Evil Anakin to put up this much of a fight. " _Look, I can't even believe we're having this debate. He is a **Sith**!You just saw him throw lightning_…"

" _So?_" Evil Anakin cut in, " _I throw lightning too, does that make **me **evil?_ " Holding out his free hand, he let a few electrical sparks fly between his outstretched fingers for show.

Mace's face twisted into an expression of pure horror. " _Anakin! You've been tainted with the dark side! _"

" _Me? _" Evil Anakin snapped, killing his sparks, " _You're the one who would murder a defenseless senator!_ "

Mace shook his head, scowling. " _That's guy's about as defenseless as a prickly-pine in a nudist colony. He's playing you, Anakin! He's playing you and you are falling for it! _"

" _Please_," Palpatine squeaked from his sill, " _What have I done? _"

Mace shot him an icy glare. " _I would make a list, but_ _I don't have all night._"

" **_He's _**the traitor Anakin! Don't listen to him! Remember what I told you! "

Mace moved in. " _Move aside, Anakin_."

Evil Anakin narrowed his eyes and refused to budge. " _No_." Mace tried to step around him, and he moved to block his path.

Palpatine was finally up now, and the old Jedi Master saw what Evil Anakin didn't: the now hideously disfigured Sith Lord smirking. He could stand it no more. " _Sorry Anakin_." He said, right before taking a swing at the other Jedi's shoulder.

With a speed unequaled by that of any Jedi or Sith, Evil Anakin caught the lightsaber with his.

Palpatine did not miss his chance to add commentary. " _See? He would strike at you. He has betrayed you! Get him Anakin! Get him before he gets us_! "

He needn't have bothered though, for Evil Anakin and Mace were already battling.

It was possibly the shortest lightsaber duel in the history of lightsaber dueling. After about one strike and two defends, Evil Anakin appeared to just get fed up and used the Force to fling Master Windu out the window, where he would fall several stories to his death.

That was it.

No snarky comments. No overly-dramatic death cries. Just silence.

Silence that encompassed at least fifteen seconds as Evil Anakin considered the ramifications of his actions.

" _What have I done? _" He croaked at last, his face a collage of horror, confusion, and disgust all rolled into one. He looked almost ready to cry.

__

Palpatine approached his side, suddenly all better from his near-death encounter. " _You are fulfilling your destiny, Anakin. Become my apprentice. I would say to learn to use the dark side of the Force, but it seems as if you already have some experience in this area. That is good. Under my guidance, you will become even greater._"

Evil Anakin stared at the wall. " _I will do whatever you ask_."

Palpatine smiled; an unpleasant contortion of his face that made it all the more horrifying. " _Good_."

Evil Anakin turned his gaze upon his new master, and anyone could see he was fighting the urge to look elsewhere. " _Just help me save Padmé's life. I can't live without her. I won't let her die. I want the power to stop death_."

" Then boy, you _really_ went to the wrong guy! " Luke scoffed. He might have said more, but Anakin motioned him to be quiet.

" _To cheat death is a power only one has achieved, but if we work together I know we can discover the secret_." Palpatine told his new apprentice.

Evil Anakin nodded solemnly and kneeled before him. " _I pledge myself to your teachings. To the ways of the Sith_."

Palpatine grinned so widely it had to hurt, displaying a row of yellowed teeth that betrayed the fact that he did not practice dental hygiene. " _Good. Good. The Force is strong with you. A powerful Sith you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth…Vader_."

Evil Anakin/Darth Vader nodded. " _Thank you, my master_."

The scene faded out, and Anakin nearly choked. Suddenly this wasn't fun anymore. Sure, it had started out pleasant enough, but now watching the replay of Evil Anakin's past was starting to make him physically sick. It was like watching a horribly tragic play of events to come…

_No, not events to come. _Anakin swallowed back the lump that had been rising in his throat and forced himself to take deep, calming breaths the way Obi-Wan had taught him, _This is Evil Anakin, not me. **Evil** Anakin. I'm sure my future went a lot differently…why am I even bothering? The only difference between me and Evil Anakin is that he's a lot stronger._

As grim as it was, facts were facts, and the fact was that all that Anakin had seen of his AU counterpart's past that he himself could remember living had closely mirrored his own experiences. Given this trend, it would mean that, even if it didn't happen in exactly the same way, he was destined to become Darth Vader in a similar fashion to what he had just witnessed.

Then again, maybe not.

Even in a few years, Anakin didn't see himself as being able to defeat Master Windu _that_ easily. Evil Anakin definitely had the edge there.

" To his credit, Palpatine was a master manipulator." Maya went on, " He'd been yanking Anakin's strings from the moment he'd first met him in hopes of one day acquiring him as an apprentice; always telling him what he _wanted_to hear rather than what he _needed _to hear. That's why his words held so much sway. That's how he was able to get Anakin believing that the Jedi were really the ones standing in the way of galactic peace, and that they were all traitorous liars jealous of his power."

The 'camera' zoomed in an extreme close-up of Palpatine's partially cloaked face, and both Skywalkers had to take a second to wonder why Maya had it in for them.

" _Execute Order Sixty-Six_." The less-than-beautiful Sith Lord commanded.

" _Yes Sir!_" An overly-zealous Clone Trooper obeyed.

The scenes that followed all crossed the screen pretty rapidly, and it was for the best that they did because not one of them was enjoyable to watch.

All over the galaxy, Clone Troopers turned on their former allies and became Storm Troopers. The overwhelmed Jedi were outnumbered hundreds to one and shot down like animals in some sick canned hunt.

" This doesn't make sense," Luke said in a tone of disbelief, " how could they wipe out the Jedi so easily? Storm Troopers aren't that tough. Back on Endor, my friends and a handful of Ewoks beat an entire army of these guys--and the Ewoks were all fighting with sticks and stones! "

Anakin shook his head, processing. " Yes, but your friends were fighting twenty years in the _future_. They're all clones of the same guy--maybe they all developed arthritis or something. Or maybe clones are stronger in this universe."

" That has to be it," Luke slumped back further in his chair, still trying to make sense of the images on the screen, " because I wouldn't consider myself to be the strongest or most skilled Jedi, and I walked right over these guys almost before I learned what the Force was."

Images of the Jedi Temple played over the ethereal viewscreen. The Storm Troopers were overrunning it, blasting everyone and everything in sight. Evil Anakin/Darth Vader stalked one of the hallways at the front of a troop, his head framed by the hood of a dark brown cloak. His eyes burned a fierce yellow and red.

_I have a very bad feeling about this, _Anakin thought with a rush, and his anxieties were not misplaced because an instant later 'Evil' Anakin really lived up to his tag.

The Jedi never even had a chance. In addition to steering clear of Vader's lightsaber, they had to worry about dodging fireballs, lightning, flying shards of ice--plus anything else that was thrown at them---and all this they had to do while evading a swarm of trigger-happy Storm Troopers. It was the universe's deadliest obstacle course. Padawans, knights, masters…none lasted more than a minute in the same room with Darth Vader. It was incredibly brutal. Not even the younglings escaped; in a scene that was over almost as soon as it started the now very-appropriately-dubbed 'Evil' Anakin entered the room in which they were hiding and slashed them all to pieces.

Stern. That was the best word to describe Vader's expression. He had hardened his heart, and it reflected on his face. He did not appear to take delight in the slaughter, but he did it nonetheless.

" He really _is _evil! " Anakin gasped, horrified.

" No kidding," Luke agreed, equally as stricken, " I knew he killed children, but I didn't think that…" he trailed off, words failing him.

" Remember," Maya comforted, " This is a replay of Evil Anakin's past. Things went a little differently in your reality."

" But I still betrayed the Jedi, right? Killed them? " All the color had drained from Anakin's face. He looked almost as pale as a ghost, even in the dim glow of the viewscreen.

The terrible images were still gliding by when Maya replied. " Yes. You were no saint either, Anakin, but I can honestly say that Evil Anakin was much worse. He killed far more people than you ever did."

_But the younglings_…Anakin refrained from asking the question. He was afraid of the answer. Afraid to think that he, Non-Evil Anakin Skywalker, would ever be capable of such a nefarious deed. Just the same, there was that small demon--the one forever lurking somewhere in the back of his consciousness--that said, _You know you are. If you were in Evil Anakin's place, you would do exactly the same thing. If Padmé were in danger, you'd kill the other Jedi to save_ _her. Don't pretend you wouldn't._

_No! _Anakin tried to force such unsavory thoughts from his mind. He hated himself for even thinking it. Hated that it could hurt this much watching little more than a movie of what that horrible double of his had done. _I would never do those things! Not me! Not me_……_the only difference between me and Evil Anakin is power_……

Luke sensed his father's unease--it was rolling off him in humungous waves. He had a pretty good idea of what he must be thinking about, and he wished he could say something to help, but what was going to do? Tell Anakin that everything was going to be okay when he didn't know for sure if it was? That would feel too much like lying.

Maya continued the story. " His mind poisoned, Anakin turned his back on Obi-Wan and the Jedi and became Darth Vader. Under his new master's command, he attacked the Jedi Temple and annihilated everyone there. Then he journeyed to Mustafar and destroyed the last obstacle in the infant Empire's way. Around that time Padmé and Obi-Wan caught up with him. They'd learned of his massacre in the temple and his new allegiance to Sidious and the Dark Side, and they were horrified. They tried to reason with him, but were unsuccessful. Vader's mind had become clouded to the truth. In his eyes, what he and Palpatine were doing was not only just, but the best solution to the galaxy's problems. From the moment he started believing the Jedi were traitors, he started seeing deceit all around him, even where there was none. Thinking that Obi-Wan had turned Padmé against him, Vader completely lost his head and attacked his former master."

Two blazing blue lightsabers slashed across the screen, humming and buzzing with a fierce intensity as they repeatedly struck one another. Obi-Wan and Darth Vader were fighting on the barren, scarred landscape of an extremely volcanic world. It was a very vicious battle, with quick, energetic saber-thrusts and a lot of last-second shunting and side-stepping.

The duel was very much going Vader's way. No matter how well aimed or perfectly timed Obi-Wan's strikes, the only thing his lightsaber found was his opponent's. At least Vader was giving him some semblance of a fair fight; he refrained from using his deadliest Force powers even though he easily could have.

The pair seemed to be arguing--or, in Obi's case, perhaps pleading--but again, the events were rushed and the talking muted.

It was for the best, Anakin decided. Maya was probably picking and choosing which events to display and whether or not to mute them to protect him from becoming too depressed. Maybe if he knew _everything_, he wouldn't be able to live with it. Maybe that was how closely Evil Anakin's past mirrored his future.

" The fight was incredibly dynamic." Maya stated, as if anyone needed _that _pointed out.

Obi-Wan used the Force to hurtle a decent-sized boulder at Vader, but the Sith raised his hand and batted it away with his own Force powers as if it were nothing. Then he chased his former master from one platform to another, and quite a bit of rapid-fire banter took place between the two as Obi-Wan struggled to hold his own.

Eventually, the fight moved to a huge chunk of rock floating down a burning river of lava, and both combatants were forced to leap to safety when it tipped too far to one side and sank in.

Now they stood almost toe-to-toe on a not-so-roomy square platform that glided along down the middle of the lava river; suspended several feet above the surface by the technology of levitation. Though the craft was not actually touching the lava, it was still unbearably hot. Both Obi-Wan and Darth Vader were sweating buckets as they shunted around and tried to get in good hits.

Obi-Wan almost got one--he swung his blade in a path aimed for his former apprentice's elbow--but the blow didn't connect because Vader was no longer standing where he had been a moment ago. Taking advantage of Obi-Wan's botched attempt, he slid in quickly and struck him in the jaw with the back of his very flesh-and-blood right hand.

Obi-Wan staggered back a few paces, stunned. He still had enough wit about him to avoid falling off the rail-less platform and into the lava, but now his defenses were down, leaving him wide open for attack.

Vader waited patiently for him to recover.

Something occurred to Luke. " Anakin? Would you say you're more right-handed or left-handed? "

" Right," Anakin answered quickly, a small quiver of excitement in his voice as he picked up on Luke's train of thought, " which means that…"

Luke finished for him, " Evil Anakin's deliberately handicapping himself. He _wants_ a fair fight! "

Anakin shifted back in his seat. Under his breath, in a voice much too quiet for even Luke to hear, he muttered, " I wish he'd go jump in the lava. Homicidal maniac." He was angry with his doppelganger for attacking the AU Obi-Wan, true, but by the same token he was also incredibly jealous of his power and skill. Even for handicapping himself by using the wrong hand, that was some fine sabering. He'd have to work twice as hard to be half as good.

" Your observations are correct." Maya's lithe form was now almost indistinguishable from the shadows, " Darth Vader could have killed Obi-Wan almost as easily as he did all the others. Perhaps because he had been so close to him he felt he was worthy of a fair fight."

Just like that the scenes slowed to real-time. The floating lava platform reached a point where it was not as far from the 'riverbank' as it had been, and Obi-Wan seized upon the chance to jump off the potential death-trap and onto dry land. He landed halfway up a somewhat steep bluff and immediately turned to face his former pupil. " _It's over Anakin! I have the high ground!_ "

" _Do not underestimate the power of the dark side_." Vader replied almost passively, gathering his legs up under him to summon a mighty Force-powered leap.

Maya paused the image. " The single most defining event in this universe's history, and the one that set it most apart from your universe, is this moment here."

Anakin swallowed nervously. He _knew _where this was heading. " I don't make the jump, do I? "

Even in the darkness the Skywalkers could see Maya drop her head an inch or so. " So far all the Anakins I've seen _make_ the jump, just not all make it in one piece. Luke, does he know about…"

" The life-support suit? " Luke turned to Anakin, a genuine sympathy in his eye, " I think I may have mentioned it once or twice…"

Anakin quickly averted his eyes to the floor. _What do you know? My universe **is** worse than this one. _ " You don't have to spell it out for me," he said softly, " I get the picture." _And it isn't a pretty one._

He didn't look up, but if he had he would have noticed that Luke was just as upset as he was.

_This has to be hard on him. _The other Skywalker thought, _Maybe having Maya show us the visuals wasn't such a good idea._ He glanced back up at the screen. Saw the same over-the-top confidence he'd seen in Vulcanus manifested on Vader. Briefly, he wondered if his Vader had been the same way, or if that kind of cocky fearlessness only came with hopped-up Force powers. _Then again, we could use all the information we can get. In this case, what we don't know could kill us._

" Go on." Anakin prodded the Senttian, returning his gaze to Vader's fateful jump. " Let's see how the evil me handles this."

Instantly the movie picked up where it had left off. Vader was ready for the jump, but instead of leaping in Obi-Wan's direction he propelled himself straight up into the air. After he had risen about fifty feet he began to fall, but he only dropped a few inches before his feet struck against some invisible barrier and he tore off after his former master, running on air as if it were solid ground.

" No waaay…" Anakin gasped, sure he must be seeing wrong, " he can RUN on the AIR! "

Beside him, Luke's reaction was pretty much the same: pure, slack-jawed shock. About the only thing that would have surprised him more would have been if Vader and Obi-Wan were to suddenly leap into the lava and take a swim without getting burned.

" No." Maya answered in the same calm tone she'd been using throughout the entire movie-sequence, " He isn't running on the air. He's running on the Force. Vader and Vulcanus can not only access the living Force, they can also, to some extent, control it. That's what makes them so dangerous."

As she was saying this, Vader ran over Obi's head and dropped to the ground behind him.

Obi-Wan spun around and lashed out at the blond-haired Sith, but for some reason his attempt was a bit clumsier than usual and easily blocked. He swung again, and this time Evil Anakin executed the same move Cin had taught him in the earlier sequence and knocked his lightsaber right out of his hand. Weaponless, the Jedi Master started to reach out--perhaps to shove his ex apprentice back with the Force--but he never made it that far.

With an almost fanciful spin, Vader released a shockwave of Force energy that knocked Obi-Wan flat on his back. As his father figure looked on, helpless, he pinned him under his boot, raised his lightsaber, and…paused.

Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes shut tightly, plainly expecting death at any moment. He had a look on his face that said: _I prayed it would never come to this._

Still, the deadly blade hovered in the air.

Vader appeared deeply troubled and confused. His watery blue eyes brimmed with unspent tears. There was anger there, yes, but also sadness.

Noises started up from someplace off screen--the steady roar of a large ship landing somewhere in the nearby vicinity. Vader's eyes darted to the source of the racket, then quickly back to his old mentor. Lowering his lightsaber, he took his foot off of Obi-Wan and took a few steps back. Obi-Wan sprang to his feet, and now Vader looked more anxious than ever.

" _Go. Now_." He barked harshly, his voice devoid of the warmth and respect he had once held for his former friend and mentor, " _I have seen enough death today_."

Obi-Wan didn't wait to be told twice. With a grave nod of appreciation he retrieved his lightsaber and fled out of view.

The rest of the sequence was lost in darkness.

As always, Maya filled in the blanks. " Palpatine had arrived, and he gave Vader flak for not killing his old master. By the time either of them noticed the ship in the air, it was too late to do anything about it. Vader decided to give it a few days before going after Obi-Wan and Padmé. He thought that would give them all some time to think. What he didn't realize was that Padmé didn't have that time and did indeed die shortly after giving birth, just like he'd feared. Just like in your universe, Obi-Wan took her children and split them up; leaving Leia to be raised with the Organa family on Alderaan and entrusting Luke to Owen and Beru Lars on Tatooine. But, as you can imagine, Evil Anakin was none too pleased when he heard that Padmé was dead and his offspring missing. In fact, he was downright furious.

" The masterful strategy that worked so well for Palpatine in your universe backfired on him early on in this one. He had been prepared for the possibility that Padmé may die and had already whipped up another batch of lies and excuses for just such an occasion. Unfortunately for Palpatine, in his well-crafted plan to take over the galaxy he had vastly underestimated his new apprentice's power, and now no amount of lying could save him from Darth Vader's wrath."

Again, the ghostly viewscreen provided the visuals to go along with the tale.

Darth Vader, wearing the same dark cloak as before, was closing in on Palpatine, who was cornered in some nondescript metal room.

" _No! Wait! You don't understand! _" The emperor was saying, his voice haggard and weak.

He looked awful--even more so than usual. Like maybe he'd tried to kiss a rabid nexxu and then been mauled by a fire-breathing wampa. One arm was gone, the other burned and bloodied almost beyond recognition. All the hair was scorched from his head, leaving behind only a charred, reddened mess. His face, too, was even more hideous to behold with sagging flaps of skin hanging limply from deeply-cut wrinkles. In fact, he was so abysmally disfigured that he was barely recognizable as being a member of the human species.

If he had hoped his plea would have some effect, he was in for a sour disappointment.

Darth Vader did not slow his approach. His expression was that of pure rage as he leveled his lethal red lightsaber, aiming straight for the old Sith's heart.

" _Please! _" Palpatine begged, his breath coming in short, ragged bursts, " _I didn't know this was going to happen! I thought we had more time! _" He hunched his shoulders defensively and pressed farther back into the cold metal walls.

Vader's eyes were two live coals burning with the deepest kind of hatred. His mouth was fixed in an unforgiving snarl. " _More time! _" He spat through gritted teeth, " _Surely you would know better than to make such stupid presumptions._" He stabbed the lightsaber at Palpatine's chest, freezing inches short of running him through, " _You lied to me. You promised me the power to stop death. I never received such power_."

" _No! _" Palpatine croaked hoarsely, dull red-tinged eyes wide with fear, " _I promised you that we would work together to discover the secret! _"

" _We never did any such thing! All you did was sit back on your butt while the clones and I did all your dirty work for you. You said Padmé would live if I did exactly as you said. She didn't. You promised me power beyond my wildest dreams. So far you have not shown me a thing I could not already do on my own. You're useless. And you know what, **Emperor**? _" He spat the title, " _I'm not convinced there ever was a Sith who discovered the power to cheat death. I think you made that story up just to turn me to the dark side. Congratulations, it worked._"His laughter was cold and cruel, " _This dark enough for you, **Sidious**_? _I killed the Jedi for nothing! You lying son of a Hutt! _"

The blade jerked down and Palpatine screamed. Then everything went pitch black.

Anakin's eyes were, by this point, as wide as saucers. " Did I…I mean, Vader, kill him? "

" Yes." Maya was still shrouded in shadow, " But he tortured him first, and trust me, _those_ visuals you can do without. After killing him he took over the Empire. He could have ended the tyranny right then if he'd felt so inclined, but by that point he'd strayed too far down the path of darkness. His heart and soul were full of anger, pain, and hatred. He was so miserable that he lashed out at the galaxy, taking his hurt out on anyone who didn't follow his code. After a while he became so numb to death that killing anyone who displeased him in any way became second nature for him, even after the hurt had subsided. But there's more to this story. Ever since Padmé's death, Vader had been tearing the galaxy apart searching for the child he knew he had. With none left to oppose him he was able to make it his top priority. It took him only four years to find Luke and rip him from his aunt and uncle. Actually, it wouldn't have taken him that long if Tatooine weren't such an obvious place and he had remembered his stepfamily sooner."

Now the bright, blindingly orange-white image of the Lars' moisture farm filled the frame. A little boy about four years old was playing with his toy X-wings in the sand out in front of the half-submerged home.

Luke recognized him instantly. " Hey! That's me! That's me when I was little! "

Anakin's face lit up with a small smile. " You were cute. Playing with your little X-wings."

Luke bit his tongue and refrained from gushing out the embarrassing truth: the habit had carried into his adulthood. Okay, so he did it far less now, but every once in awhile when no-one was watching he'd grab out the old model ships and engage them in dogfights.

Purely for tactical reasons, of course.

Suddenly Vader emerged from seemingly out of nowhere--looking absolutely no different than he had four years ago--and a shadow fell over little Luke. Startled, the youngster looked up, clutching his toys tightly as if afraid this strange new man might take them away.

Their eyes met.

Then Beru burst out the front door, her face ashen with fear. Throwing her head back over her shoulder, she called, " _Owen! Owen come quick! It's **him**! _" Then, turning forward again, she shouted, " _Luke get away from him! Hurry_! "

Child Luke may not have understood the gravity of the situation, but the frantic, urgent tone of his aunt's voice was enough to make him take her seriously. Rising to his feet, he drew back several paces, fearful blue eyes fixed firmly on the cloaked stranger.

Vader made no move to stop him. Instead he flashed him a friendly smile. " _What's the hurry Luke? Your aunt's overreacting--I'm not here to hurt anyone_." His sharp eyes bore a hole through Beru and Owen, the latter of which had just appeared from below.

" _W-who are you? _" Child Luke stammered, unsure of whether or not to trust this stranger.

A sly smile bridged Vader's face. He returned his gaze to the Lars, but now his expression softened. " _Go ahead. Tell the boy who I am_."

For a moment, neither Lars said a thing. They just stood there, their faces wrought with a heavy cocktail of shock and fear.

It was Owen who finally found the words--and the courage--to speak. " _That's Anakin Skywalker…Luke, that's your father._"

" _But Uncle Owen, you said my father was dead_." Child Luke stated dubiously.

Owen acted like he had something stuck in his throat. " _That's because I thought he was_."

Vader forced a wry chuckle. " _Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated._"

Beru wasn't any less bothered. " _Is it true what Obi-Wan said then? That you've turned to the dark side? _" She kept perfectly still, as if afraid any form of movement might provoke her stepbrother in-law to attack.

Vader tiled his head in an almost playful manner. " _Dark side? Depends on where you're standing. You'll find I can be quite lenient with those whom I regard as friends._"

Beru flung a hand up to her mouth and gasped. " _You really **have** turned! You've allied yourself with the Empire! _"

Vader laughed, and this time it was genuine. " _No. I **am**_ _the Empire. Nothing goes on in this galaxy without my consent_."

" _Why have you come here? _" Owen asked, trying to appear brave.

Vader went over and placed a hand on Child Luke's shoulder. " _I would think it would be obvious, even to morons like you._"

" _No…not Luke! _" Beru was a step away from tears, " _Don't take him from us, please! _"

" _Now let's just hold on_." Owen thrust up both hands, signaling his wife to calm down while at the same time conveying to Vader that he didn't want any trouble, " _We're all family here, I'm sure we can work this out_."

Vader glared at him. " _We're not _brothers_, Owen. I barely know you. Luke's coming to live with me. You should be happy for him. I can offer him a much better life than you ever could._"

It was a direct slap to Owen's face, but he remained silent. Apparently he knew better than to get testy with someone as dangerous as Evil Anakin.

Beru had to fight back her tears. " _But we **raised **him! _"

" _Yes, and you did a wonderful job of it._" Vader's reply was tactless and to the point, " _But I can take it from here. It's me, his father, he belongs with--not you. You're no longer needed._" He gave Child Luke's shoulder a gentle squeeze. " _Come on, Luke. Let's go have some fun._"

" _Fun! _" Child Luke's eyes sparkled with glee, the skepticism of earlier forgotten. Vader nodded and started to pull him away. He started to follow, but the saddened faces of his aunt and uncle stopped him. Turning back, he said, " _But what about Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru? Won't they be sad without me? _"

" _They'll be fine. I promise_." Vader grinned in a way that was meant to be reassuring, but in actuality appeared quite ominous. Luckily for him, his son didn't notice. " _You and I are going to have _lots_ of fun together! I'll take you into town, and you can have everything you want. Everything_." He winked, a very non-threatening gesture to help ease the kid's mind, " _Not even the sky's the limit. And we'll go anywhere you want! Toy shops, arcades, the Faire_…"

" _Faire! _" Little Luke echoed, and there was so much excitement packed into that single word. " _Oh, that would be great! 'An we can go on the **Twisty Twirly**! _"

" Oh, that thing would make me sick." Padawan Anakin groaned, the mere thought of being on a ride that spun in one place in super-fast circles enough to make his stomach turn.

Darth Vader appeared to be of the same opinion. " _Twisty Twirly_? " He repeated in a note of horror. Child Luke's smile started to slip, and he put on a phony grin. " _Of course!_ " He brushed a hand through the boy's fluffy dark-blond hair. " _Anything you want. We'll both have a blast. And at the end of the day I'll take you to your new home. Trust me, once you see it, you'll forget all about the Lars and this pathetic shack they call a farm_."

Owen couldn't help himself. " _You ungrateful, cold-hearted_…"

Vader cut him off with a wave of his hand. Turning on his heel, he didn't so much as glance back to make eye-contact with the man who had helped raise and nurture his son during his absence. " _Careful Owen. You wouldn't want me to have to break my promise._" He took little Luke by the hand, and the child followed him readily.

The image faded on the Lars hugging each other sadly, helpless to do anything but watch as the boy they loved like a son walked out of their lives.

The scene saddened Luke. Even though this was an alternate reality, he couldn't help but to feel they should have fought a little harder to keep him. _No, I'm being selfish. _He told himself, _Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru turning kid Vulcanus over to Vader without much of a fuss_ _makes them **smart**, not uncaring_. _Vader would've creamed them if they'd gotten too annoying. Or sent someone else to do it for him_.

" As I said earlier," Maya reiterated, " Vader spoiled young Vulcanus. Horrible as he was to everyone else, he was a pretty good father. Very protective. Which was good, because several assassination attempts were made on his son's life. He even went so far as to hire bounty hunter Boba Fett as Luke's personal bodyguard and babysitter. Now, I admittingly didn't observe much between then and now--I tend to not always study events in chronological order--but I do know that Luke was christened Darth Vulcanus at 15 years of age, and that by then he was fully capable of defending himself."

" Yeah," Anakin grumped sourly, " he didn't seem to have a problem kicking my butt."

" He wouldn't." Maya agreed, " You have to remember that he spars against the stronger version of you all the time, and that he received training at a much earlier age than you did."

From the way she'd been talking, Anakin and Luke figured the Senttian must be done with the 'show' portion of her little show and tell. But no--it seemed she still had one last clip to show.

This time the setting was a faire on Tatooine. It was a typically hot, sunny day with the twin suns beating down fiercely on a smorgasbord of beings, creatures, stands, exhibits, games, and rides--many of which spun like an out-of-control-top that was spinning on an out-of-control top. The scene was chaotic, noisy, and extremely crowded.

" I know that! " Luke piped up, eyes sparkling with remembered excitement, " It's the Velex Faire! I used to go there every year with my uncle and aunt! Fun times."

" I'm glad you got to go." Anakin said, " Watto never let me."

Suddenly the focus of the screen shifted to a bright yellow structure with eight mechanical arms each supporting two large pods. Pods that rotated faster than the blades of an industrial-strength fan set on full blast while the bottom platform tilted and whirled at a ludicrous speed.

The infamous _Twisty Twirly_.

The ride was just stopping when the 'camera' zoomed in on one of the pods--this one emblazoned with the happy caricature of a laughing pink fuzzy thing. The pod finally slowed to a complete stop, and the opaque door slid open.

Out shot Child Luke, a planet-sized grin on his face.

Behind him, Vader almost fell out of the contraption. Dizzy and disoriented, he looked anything but thrilled. In fact he looked quite ill. His face was all pasty and fevered and he seemed unable to keep his balance very well. He staggered like a drunkard to the metal railing encircling the ride and leaned on it heavily for support.

" _Ugh…they should judge that ride unsafe for humans_." He panted, gripping the railing tightly with both hands, " _I am so glad I skipped breakfast_."

He didn't get much chance to rest though, as a pint-sized Luke was avidly tugging on his clothes. " _Come on Dad! Hurry up! I want to go on that one next! _"

Wearily, Vader lifted his head and gazed off in the direction his son was so excitedly pointing. What color he had left in his cheeks vanished when he laid eyes on the '_Cyclone'_: a monolithic ride not too different from the Twisty Twirly except that, instead of twirling in tight circles only a few feet off the ground in one direction, children and thrill-seekers alike were treated with the privilege of twirling in tight circles _twenty_ feet off the ground in _all_ directions.

" _Just…wait until I rest up a bit, okay? _" Vader replied woozily, taking his eyes off the sickness-inducing Cyclone. He leaned even further into the railing. " _For the love of the Force, aren't there any rides that don't_ **_spin_**? " He looked about ready to pass out.

Child Luke waited for about one second before deciding that his father had gotten enough rest. A small green thing went by holding a container of fluffy pink candy, and that was all it took. Squealing in delight, he grabbed Vader's sleeve and yanked him along after him. " Come on Daddy! I want some CANDY! "

" _No! Wait! Luke, I'm not feeling so well…_" Vader pleaded, but in his impaired state he was too weak to put up much resistance. Little Luke managed to drag him along for five feet before he tripped over a discarded beverage container and went down flat on his face. The scene ended on a roar of laughter.

Luke in particular couldn't stop giggling. " Oh, that was hilarious! Good one, Maya." He gave her a thumbs-up.

Anakin remained eerily quiet.

" I thought I might show you something a little less dark." The Senttian explained, " Something to remind you that there will always be hope. Because I know it doesn't seem like it now, but you _can_ defeat your doppelgangers."

" I don't see how." Anakin muttered, keeping his head low and his expression hidden in the shadows, " They're so much stronger than us."

Luke nodded in solemn agreement. His humor had been short-lived. " As much as I want to believe that, Anakin has a point. I'm all for not giving up the hope--sometimes it was the only thing that kept me going when everything else failed--but Vader and Vulcanus are too powerful. We'd never win in a fight against them."

" No, you wouldn't." Maya surprised her company by openly agreeing with the pessimistic statement, " Either of you picks a fight with your doppelganger, it's likely to be the last mistake you'll ever make. They'll crush you with ease. Even both of you together on your best day with a small army to back you up couldn't take Vulcanus alone on his worst day. Nevermind Vulcanus _and _Vader. It's not terribly encouraging, I know, but it's the truth and I'm not going to cloud your minds with false idealisms.

Your best bet for getting the Cindray will be to infiltrate the volcano lair as swiftly and quietly as possible, because if Vader and Vulcanus are allowed to leave the planet with it you'll both be stranded here until they return. There will be guards, of course, but they should pose little challenge for Jedi such as you. Once you get in you'll have to keep moving quickly, since your dark doubles will be able to sense your presence through the Force and odds are very good that such an experience will invoke feelings of curiosity in them. While it is recharging, I would guess that they probably keep the crystal in a heavily-guarded room; or, in a worst-case scenario, one of them will be carrying it. Do everything in your power to avoid an encounter with either of them--_especially_ Vader--but if worse comes to worse and you find yourself in that situation, I have already given you the greatest weap..."

An explosion like a dozen bombs going off all at once shook the room forcefully. The entire right-hand side of the building crumbled in on itself, giving way to the harsh light of day.

Instantly Anakin and Luke were up on their feet. As one they ignited their lightsabers, praying for the best but fearing the worst…

X-x-X

****

A/N: _I know it may seem like I made Vader and Vulcanus way too powerful for poor light-side Ani and Luke to have the ghost of a chance against, but they DO have limitations and weaknesses, as you will see later on._

If you have any questions or anything you want me to reply to in the next chapter, just end your review with PR ( short for Please Reply ) and I'll be sure to do that. (smiles)

Lastly, I now post the chapter-progress for this fic in my profile, so be sure to check that frequently if you want to know how close I am to my next update!

Until next time!


	11. The Offer Leia Couldn't Refuse

A/N: _If it weren't for college, I'd be able to get chapters like these out in less than half the time it currently takes me. So sorry to keep you all waiting. College is evil. Well, maybe not so much evil as time-consuming. Thank you again to all my wonderful readers! Your glowing reviews have been keeping my passion for writing burning bright._

In response to **Lunatic Pandora1**_'s__review, the reason Maya did not show Anakin what he would look like in Luke's timeline is because she did not want to demoralize him any more than what was absolutely necessary. Anakin already knows what lies in store for him if he ends up having to go down that path, so what good would it do to give him the visuals? All it would do is depress him all the more, and there would be no point to it at all. ( At least from the logic perspective. )_

I really really hope lets me keep my question-marks with the exclamation points following them this time. I realize some of my dialogue may have looked a little weird the past few chapters where the question-mark was omitted by the upload engine. /grr/ I am working on correcting this though, and as soon as FF will allow it I will go back and fix those chapters.

Oh, and for those following "The Heart Of A Sith" I should have Chapter 5 of that up within the next day.

Chapter 11

Leia's head throbbed with the implications of what had happened. The last place she remembered being before her present location was Tatooine, on the outskirts of Mos Eisely. Her, Han, and Chewie had gone out after supplies, leaving Luke and the droids to look after the Falcon.

It should have been a short, simple trip. The speeders were fast and conditions ideal. Any normal day it would have taken them four hours at most to make a complete circuit between the site of the old Lars moisture farm and the heart of Mos Eisely, and that was including time for shopping, chatting, and eating out.

But today--was it still even the same day?--had not been normal in any sense of the word. 

Leia still could not quite figure it out. They'd been three quarters of the way to town, engines humming full throttle, when suddenly both speeders had jerked back as if some mighty giant had had them tied to cables and yanked. She remembered letting out a small yelp of surprise and gunning the speeder for all it was worth, but it was no use because the engine had cut out an instant later. She'd managed to leap off the failed device right before it's anti-gravity components gave out and it collapsed to the ground, and had been aware of Han and Chewie doing the same.

The minutes that had followed were still lost in the fog of confusion. They'd all done a quick scan of the area and found nothing but sand, rocks, and the small desert life-forms that were all very commonplace to the region. There had been a large rock formation two-hundred feet off in one direction, but Leia remembered thinking that there was nothing unusual about it.

Han had been cursing over the fact that two supposedly tip-top shape landspeeders had suddenly given out for no logical explanation when something small and sharp had pierced his neck, and he let out an annoyed "ow". Scarcely more than a second had gone by after that before Chewie moaned in discomfort and began rubbing at his throat.

Leia had rushed to their aid, and right as she had grabbed Han's arm to help him keep his rapidly-failing balance she had felt a sharp sting in her neck. Her hand had instinctively rushed up to pull out the dart--for she knew then that that was what they were--but her excited, trembling fingers brushed right over the item the first two times. By the time she had managed to pull the tiny terror from her flesh, Han and Chewie were already on the ground, struggling to stay conscious. A few seconds later and she had joined them, fighting with ever fiber of her being to remain alert, to call for help.

Han had muttered something then, but his words had been incomprehensible. To this moment not even he remembered what he had said.

With her last ounce of strength, the former princess of Alderaan had managed to turn her head a few inches.

Now, it might just have been the trick of a desperate mind conjuring up images she _wanted_ to see, but in that last split-second before her vision went black Leia swore she saw her brother standing over her. It was this last, perhaps, that troubled her most of all.

If Luke had indeed not been an apparition, he would surely never have allowed her and the others to wind up _here_.

Where was here?

Several hours had gone by and she still did not know anything beyond the fact that her and her friends were being held prisoner in an uncomfortably hot place. The room was medium in size and the walls, ceiling, and floor were all composed of the same ruddy-red rock. A small air-conditioning unit fought a losing battle to the heat up in the far corner. Other than a few ventilation shafts, it was the only distinguishing feature in the room outside of the cage.

That's right--the cage.

Being a prisoner in a cell-room or containing-unit was bad enough, but being locked in an actual _cage_ made Leia feel like an exhibit at a zoo.

The cage containing them was crude and old-fashioned. Rectangular in shape, and about fourteen feet long by seven wide, it consisted of no more than several thick bars of a strong metal alloy running vertically from ceiling to floor. Near the middle of this arrangement was the door: a well-crafted object with mammoth hinges and a large black box on the outside into which the correct key must be placed in order to release the mechanically-activated lock. The inside furnishings consisted of no more than a small cot on which lay a single lonely pillow, a hole in the wall with a door leading to a bathroom so small Chewbacca could not stand at full height in it, and a small horizontal break in the bars off to the side of the cage and at the bottom; the latter of which was presumably for pushing trays of food through.

In short, it was not your high-end accommodation. There was absolutely nothing interesting to look at and no tell-tale clues to the mystery of where they were and who had captured them.

" I really hate long waits." Han groused irritably, leaning his back solidly against the bars near the door. His eyes were cast downward.

At his side, Chewie sat on the ground with his great shaggy knees hunched up in silent agreement.

Leia heaved a weary sigh and plunked down for what had to be the fiftieth time on one end of the tiny cot. It was almost harder than the floor, and she loathed the idea of spending the night--or the next several nights--in these conditions. At least her holding cell onboard the Death Star had allowed her a mattress and a relatively soft blanket. Whoever ran this place liked to keep things firm and simple. Literally.

" Han, " She said quietly, blue eyes staring ahead thoughtfully into space, " I think that _was _Luke I saw just before I blacked out. Something in my gut tells me."

Han made a face. " Yeah, you said that earlier. And just for the sake of repeating I'm going to say the same thing I did before: if that was Luke, why isn't he in here with us? "

_That's what I want to know_. Leia slouched forward with her elbows on her knees and dropped her chin into the cup formed by her hands. " I don't know." She admitted, " Maybe they had something else in mind for him." _But what?_

Han rolled his eyes and sagged a few inches closer to the ground. " Oh sure, Luke gets special treatment just because he's a…a _Jedi_ knight. I keep forgetting."

" Well he did destroy the Empire…"

" With our help. And just while we're on the topic, who do you think captured us anyway? The Empire's gone and Jabba's dead--who else would want us? "

" Someone who was loyal to the Empire, maybe? " Leia offered suggestively. It was the only thing she could come up with that made any degree of sense. Unless their captors had captured them for completely unrelated, unknown reasons. Which, hey, not that big a leap. The galaxy was crawling with scumbags who would murder their own mothers for the right price.

Chewie grunted his assent.

Han frowned sourly. " Oh great. Just what we need. You know, we saved the galaxy, you'd think folks would be happy. But no, there's always some moron out there who can't stand improvement."

Leia shut her eyes and groaned inwardly. This was getting them nowhere. _But look on the bright side, _her spirits pointed out, _at least no one is hurt, and whoever captured us is bound to come back in and check on us sooner or later. Maybe once we find out what this is all about we can cut some kind of deal with these creeps and get out of here. In the meantime, at least I have Han and Chewie for company. That's one blessing._

But where was Luke?

Lost in the darkness of her closed eyes, the former princess relaxed all thoughts and just _listened_.

All was quiet.

From her position, she could hear the beat of her heart. Her slow, drawn breaths. The hum of the ventilation system. Then other noises reached her sensory: the shuffling of feet and muffled voices from somewhere outside the room.

Oh yes, there were definitely people here. At least a dozen, probably more.

Then something else, something both strange and familiar…

" He's here! " Leia bolted upright so quickly it about gave Han a heart-attack, her eyes wild with excitement. " Luke is here! And he's on his way to us right now! "

" Great! Best news I've heard all day! " Straightening himself, Han turned to his hairy companion. " Hear that Chewie? We're getting out of here! "

The wookie bellowed a few high-pitched syllables, conveying his happiness. He rose to his feet and looked anxiously to the silvery metallic door where he hoped top see the familiar form of Luke appear shortly.

" Wait. Something's not right." Leia's initial joy was eclipsed with a sudden anxiety. The beginnings of a frown dug at the corner of her mouth.

Han didn't like that a bit. " Wait? What do you mean wait? What's not right? "

Leia shook her head, as if there were something extremely disturbing bouncing around in there that she just could not understand. " I don't know. It's Luke…he feels…different."

" Different good or different bad? " Han asked, puzzled. He didn't bother asking how Leia knew such things. From the moment he had first met her the woman had never ceased to amaze him with these sudden flashes of clairvoyance. One thing she was particularly good at was sensing Luke's presence. The two seemed to share a sort of psychic link that transcended mere siblinghood. Sometimes, when Han saw them gazing into each other's eyes with a kind of supernatural intensity, he had to wonder if they weren't communicating with each other telepathically.

" I'm not sure," Leia trailed uncertainly, " it's hard to explain. He just feels _different_."

Han's unspoken question was murdered on his lips by the '_whoosh'_ of the door being opened.

There he was.

" Luke! Boy am I glad to see you! " Han breathed a sigh of relief. Still, something in the back of head cautioned him that perhaps it came too soon.

" Glad to hear it." Luke greeted cheerfully without pausing in his stride. His hands were full with a silver tray on which four tall glasses filled with a deep red liquid rested. The door shut on it's own behind him.

Carefully, he moved to the front of the cage until he was almost--but not quite--at arm's length.

Leia recoiled instantly, an icy feeling of dread welling up inside her stomach. The black cape, the casual swagger, the drinks…it was all _wrong_. " You're not Luke." She stated in a low voice that was almost hostile enough to be considered a growl.

Not Luke flashed her a toothless smile. " Sure I am. Care for a drink? " Freeing his left hand from under the tray, he raised it to the air and three of the four drinks rose off the platform to float seamlessly between the bars.

" Force tricks." Han muttered, though he had to admit that it was a pretty _neat_ trick.

The glasses drifted gently to the ground without a drop having been spilt.

The three prisoners avoided them like a plague of serpents.

Luke looked almost apologetic. " Sorry," he gushed, abashed, " I didn't know what any of your favorites were, so I just went with my favorite." He lifted his own glass to his lips and took a contented sip, allowing the tray to clatter to the ground.

" And just what _is _your favorite? " Han asked skeptically, eying Luke--or the man who claimed to be him--over like a part to his ship that wasn't fitting quite right. If he'd had his doubts before, now he was sure something was up. Luke didn't wear capes and he was never this…relaxed. Especially in the heart of the enemy camp.

Luke took another sip before answering. " BLOOD! " This was followed by a hysterical, wild laughter; like that of a madman who had just escaped from a mental hospital.

Chewie moaned.

Han and Leia both took a startled leap backwards from their drinks, as if the glasses had suddenly transformed into the most lethal kind of bombs.

" Nah, just kidding." Luke's bone-chilling laughter ceased. He nodded his head appreciatively, still smiling but suddenly much more serious. " It's really drackenberry juice with a slight sawwa twist." He raised his glass for emphasis. " Good stuff." This time he closed his eyes and drank deeply.

Blood or no, Han wanted nothing to do with the vile red liquid. Ignoring it, he turned a frustrated scowl towards Luke. He'd let this go far enough. " Alright, what are you up to? Why are we in a cage, and why are you not doing anything about it? "

" This isn't funny anymore." Leia added hastily, her expression firm, " Let us out! "

Luke finished off the last of his drink and set the empty container on the floor. " Afraid I can't do that."

" Why not? " Han demanded, his patience ebbing.

" Because if I did Darth Vader would have my head. He doesn't like it when I deliberately disobey orders."

Leia felt as though she'd been doused with a giant bucket of ice-water. All the color drained from her cheeks. " _Vader's_ still alive? " She gasped, her breath catching in her throat._ No! It can't be! He died on the final Death Star……according to Luke._

" Oh yes. Very much alive." Luke seemed bored by this fact.

Han felt his blood start to simmer as the pieces fell together. " Why you backstabbing worm. You've betrayed us!"

It was more of a suggestion than an outright accusation. Surprised as he was, Han wasn't jumping to any conclusions just yet. He knew Luke. The kid was practically like a brother to him and, in a few months time, if they got out of here and everything else went to plan, he _would _be by marriage. There had to be a good reason he was acting so out of character. Maybe it was all part of some big plan they didn't know about. Maybe by pretending to join the enemy team Luke was keeping them safe until he himself could find a way to get them all out of this mess. _That has to be it, _he reasoned, _Luke would never truly betray us. But if he has I need to hear it from him personally._

" Betrayed you? " Luke came closer, and now Han could just make out the slender form of a small scar above his right eyebrow, " You have me all wrong. I would never betray a friend." His eyes flashed to Leia, and for a fraction of an instant she thought she saw some of the old Luke glittering within those frosty blue irises, " Certainly not my own sister." He crossed his arms.

Chewie finally decided he was thirsty and approached the drinks. Grabbing one up in a jerky motion that caused some of the contents to spill over the brim, he lifted the glass to his mouth and was about to drink when Han cautioned " Careful. You don't know what's in that."

" It's only drackenberry juice." Luke assured the wary captain, " What, you don't trust me now? " He cocked an eyebrow in a gesture which not even Leia was able to interpret the meaning of.

Han frowned. " Considering the fact that we're in a cage in you're not? And you're acting strange on top of it? No. Safe bet to say, I _don't_ trust you."

Chewie sat the drink back down, heeding his companion's advice.

Leia went to her fiancé's side and appeared to be gazing right past Luke rather than focusing her sights directly on him. Never before had she been so confused. Instinct told her that this Luke was off; she could plainly see that he wasn't acting himself, but just when she'd been ready to write him off as an imposter he'd given her that familiar look and for that instant some of his soul had shone through.

But was this _really _her brother?

_Only one way to know_. Approaching the bars, she extended a hand. " Luke? Can I see your right hand? " If this was the genuine article he'd have nothing to hide.

Luke looked a bit bewildered, but complied. " Sure. Alright." He laid his palm in hers, and from that moment Leia knew that this Luke was not the same one who had rescued her from that cell years ago.

There was no scar on his wrist. None. His hand felt warm and completely natural. Now that she was up close, Leia noticed a few other differences as well. This Luke look-alike was, by a small percentage, more muscular than the real one, and his hair was two or three inches longer. Then there was the scar that gleaned like a sharp violet-pink cut over his right eye. _Odd._

The Luke doppelganger noticed her studying him. " What? " He asked, oblivious.

Leia looked him straight in the eye. " You're not my brother." She announced resolutely, dropping his hand.

Not Luke blinked, a fleeting of spark of surprise flickering across his features. All traces of the emotion quickly dispersed though, and he again resumed his casual persona. " This you can tell from a hand-reading? " He laughed.

Leia didn't pretend he had her fooled. " Alright. Wanna play games? Fine. Answer this question, and I'll go along with whatever you say: what did you ask me out on that bridge that one night on Endor? " Crossing her arms, she waited for his answer.

They all did.

Luke's double frowned and appeared confused.

Ten seconds ticked by without an answer.

" Endor? I don't know anything about Endor." He admitted at last, shaking his head and sighing in frustration.

" Then I suppose you don't know anything about Hoth, either? " Han pried, both relieved and troubled at the same time.

Not Luke wrinkled his nose by way of disgust. " Hoth? Giant iceball in the middle of nowhere. Hated it there."

" Yes, but do you know what _happened _there? "

Not Luke was lost. His blank expression betrayed him.

" Who are you _really_? " Leia demanded.

The Luke look-alike never got the chance to answer, because just then the door swished opened.

The young man who entered sort of resembled Luke in a way, only a couple of years older and more powerfully built. His goldish-brown hair was on the curly side and came down to his shoulders. He was dressed in a similar fashion to the Luke doppelganger, only his clothes were a rich dark-chocolate brown in places instead of all black, and a little looser-fitting. Though lacking a cape, he did wear the exact same type of belt as Luke complete with lightsaber.

Leia couldn't fully explain the strange feeling she had right then--a sudden flood of familiarity. She had never seen the man before in her life, but somehow she _knew_ she was connected to him, the same way she _knew_ she was connected to Luke upon their very first meeting.

" Hello, Father." Not Luke greeted lazily without even looking in that direction.

Han shook his head. " And just when I thought things couldn't get any more bizarre." He threw up his arms, startling both men. " Sure, why not? Luke's a traitor and you're Darth Vader."

"Luke's" father gave "Luke" a disapproving glare. " Vulcanus, what have you been telling them? "

" Not much." Vulcanus confessed, sweeping his eyes over the imprisoned trio, " They're fresh."

" Fresh? Fresh for what? " Leia trilled, her patience tested to it's end, " Who _are _you two? "

" In all honesty? " Vulcanus met their gaze and gave them a crooked grin, " My birth-name was Luke Skywalker, but nowadays I go by Darth Vulcanus." He touched a finger to his chin and feigned a thoughtful posture, " Or Lord Vulcanus, or King Vulcanus…take your pick. _That_," he pointed to the man next to him, " is my father, Darth Vader."

Vader's eyes settled on Leia, and it was as if all the heat had been sucked out of the room. " Pleasure meeting you for the first time, _daughter_. Your brother and I have been waiting a long time for this." Though his words were not unkind, there was an icy undercurrent to the cool, calculated tone with which he spoke that hinted at unseen dangers lurking just beneath the calm exterior.

" But that's impossible! " Leia shuddered from the sudden phantom chill which had overtaken her body, " You can't be Darth Vader! You're way too young! "

" Yeah," Han agreed, managing to hide most of his shock, " You look like you're in your mid twenties. _No _aging cream is _that_ good."

Vader laughed. " I'll take that as a compliment. I'm actually forty-three, but at this rate I'll be four hundred before I look it. It's the midi-chlorians. Sometime when I was in my early twenties they slowed my aging process. A youthful host is advantageous." He nodded towards Vulcanus. " Same thing will happen to Vulcanus, if it hasn't already."

Vulcanus shook his head and frowned at the ground. " I _hope _it hasn't started in already. I kinda want to age another two or three years first."

Vader shot him a quizzical look. " Why? I honestly can't see you getting any bigger or buffer. Face it Luke, you're not Boba Fett."

Vulcanus jerked his head up and looked as though he'd been slapped. " What? You really think Boba Fett's buffer than me? "

Vader rolled his eyes. " No, I really _know_ Boba Fett's buffer than you. Just about everybody is." He turned his head and looked away, a playful smile lighting up his features.

" Hey, you want to say that to my face? " Vulcanus huffed indignantly, his ego wounded.

" I just did you dip."

" Then what makes you think I won't Jabberwock your face? "

Vader cocked an eyebrow and turned back around slowly. " Oh? That a challenge? "

" Maybe."

Vader smiled evily. " I'll mop the floor with your blood."

" Gee, that'll be pretty hard to do with NO HANDS! "

Vader turned his eyes away and pretended to be disinterested.

A triumphant smirk appeared on Vulcanus's face. " Hah! Thought so. You can't handle the truth. You can't…"

Vader whirled around so fast it was dizzying and whipped his right hand out, sending Vulcanus flying with a massive Force push. The dark king of the galaxy collided with the far wall with enough force to knock the wind out of him and crumpled to the ground.

" You are unwise to lower your defenses! " Darth Vader exclaimed, and Leia couldn't tell by his tone or body-language whether he was just playing around or truly peeved.

_What strange dimension did I wake up in? _She glanced quickly to Han, saw that he was just as perplexed as she was.

When neither of them were looking Chewie grabbed one of the drackenberry drinks, sniffed it, and then proceeded to guzzle it down as he watched the events unfolding outside the cage.

For the moment, at least as far as the dueling Sith were concerned, the three confused prisoners were forgotten.

Vulcanus was quick to recover and sprang back into action, a violent twinkle in his eye. He lashed out with one hand and sent a stream of crimson and orange flame towards his father. Vader countered this by throwing a jet of fire of his own, and the two forces collided.

_Talk about fighting fire with fire. _Han thought, and it frustrated him that he had a vague idea at best as to what exactly in the name of all things sacred was going on here. Okay, so he didn't know much about the Force--in fact half the time he still wasn't so sure he even _believed _in it--but he didn't remember Luke being that powerful. Or seeing Vader out of his suit, for that matter. If the man looked like that underneath, why did he even bother wearing one? The list of questions went on and on.

For once in his life, Han wished he hadn't given Luke the brush-off every time he'd started talking about his father and the Force. Without more knowledge, trying to make sense of the current situation was a lot like trying to fit together the pieces of a puzzle in the dark. He could use all the light he could get.

For the first few seconds, the two jets of fire held one another at bay; each raging against the other with a furious might. Then little by little Vader's began to overtake Vulcanus's. The Luke doppelganger strained under the effort. Even so, his outlook was incredibly optimistic.

" Ready to surrender yet? " He asked spiritedly, even as his flame was forced closer and closer back to his hand.

A sly smile glinted briefly over Vader's features. " Nah. I think I'll hang in a little longer."

Vulcanus cut his flame and dived aside before the rest of the fire could hit him. " Come on Anakin." He jeered, " Show me what you've got."

Vader's eyes instantly changed from blue to a hellish red and yellow. " _Never_ call me that! " He raged, suddenly furious.

Vulcanus got a comical look on his face of pure horror, as if he knew he'd stepped out of line with that remark. As Han, Leia, and Chewie looked on with varying mixed emotions, his father lifted him off of the ground with the Force and flicked a few fingers backward in a clawing motion.

The effect this had was instantly clear as four angry red slashes appeared on Vulcanus's right cheek. The young Sith Lord gritted his teeth and made his own Force swipe. Vader's head snapped violently to one side and now his cheek matched his son's.

" Alright. You've asked for it." He growled, though he sounded less angry than Leia would have imagined.

Vulcanus cracked a grin and licked at some of the blood dribbling down his face. " Bring it." He challenged, feeling especially bold, " I _dare_ you to."

" Are you _insane_? " Han threw, unable to believe what he was hearing and seeing.

The Skywalkers ignored him.

The next thirty seconds passed in a blur. Vader used the Force to smack Vulcanus around into the walls/ceiling/ground a few times in a manner which caused Han and Leia to twitch in pain just watching. Somehow Vulcanus managed to remain in one place long enough to get in a Force attack of his own, and Vader began choking. It didn't last long though because the emperor retaliated by shooting lightning out of the tips of his fingers and struck Vulcanus full in the chest.

While this alone would have been enough to send regular Luke writhing to the floor in pain, it merely stunned Vulcanus into relinquishing his Force chokehold. He flew backward with the lighting into the wall, and struggled for a moment before absorbing the charge into the air in front of his hand.

With a wicked smile, Vader brought out his other hand--the one that _wasn't _currently employed in the business of electrocution.

" Mother." Vulcanus whimpered, but it was all he had time to say before he was hit with a second blast of lightning in addition to the first. He held out both hands and tried to absorb it, but his strength was fading fast.

Vader flexed his fingers and suddenly the blue-violet tendrils racing from his fingers grew bigger, thicker, and about twice as powerful.

Vulcanus was completely overwhelmed. His defense crumbled away and he went down hard.

Vader immediately stopped his assault. Making his way over to his fallen apprentice, he flipped him onto his belly with the Force and slammed his foot down on the middle of his back. " I win."

" Hmphf." Vulcanus snorted from below, " That's only because I spent most of my Force powers ruining those villages. I didn't have enough time to recharge to give you a proper fight."

Vader stepped off of him. " Excuses excuses." He teased, " You'll never be as great as me."

Vulcanus got to his feet and spat some dirt out of his mouth. " Don't count on it. Quick as I get my strength back we're going again. And this time I won't take it easy on ya just because you're my father."

Vader shook his head, working his lips into a wane smile of amusement. " Quite delusional." He turned to his prisoners, seemingly unaware of the bleeding cuts on his face. " Nevermind him. He's just an unruly apprentice."

Leia had had enough. " This doesn't make sense! " She pointed at Vulcanus, who was brushing some dirt off his clothes, " You're not the Luke I know and _you_ " her finger shifted to Vader, " don't look like Darth Vader."

Vader blinked, surprised. " Huh? How am I supposed to look? "

" Aw, come on Leia." Han said, " I knew that whole body-suit and helmet getup was just a ruse. He probably wore it just to fool everyone into thinking he was some weak old fossil until he was ready to make his move." He cast Vulcanus a suspicious eye. " I'm not sure what's going on with the kid though."

" _Body-suit? Helmet? _" Vader echoed faintly, and it was clear that he had absolutely no idea what Han was talking about.

" Kid? Who are you calling a kid? " Vulcanus snapped. He waved a hand over the bloody slashes on his face and they disappeared instantly, leaving behind only a few drips of blood. " I might not be Boba Fett but I'm no kid either. You're lucky you're such good friends with my sister--I've killed men far tougher than you for far less an insult."

" Oh, is that a fact? " Han said, picking a mocking tone, " What'd they do, catch you playing with your dolls? "

Vader snickered, and Vulcanus's face lit up with shocked surprise; as though he were quite unused to being spoken to in such a manner. Then the initial effect wore off, and his expression settled into an annoyed frown.

Turning to Vader, he asked in a cheery voice, " Can I kill him? _Please_? "

" I'm afraid Leia might not approve of that." Vader managed between chuckles. He offered Han a light-hearted grin. " Oh, I like you! What's your name anyway? "

" Han Solo." The ex-smuggler announced with pride.

One edge of Vulcanus's mouth turned up in the not-so-subtle beginnings of a snarl. If looks could kill, Han would've been dead.

Not that anyone noticed. All attention was focused on Vader.

" My apologies," The older Sith said in a much more serious manner of speech, " it just occurred to me that you all probably have no idea what's going on. Allow me to clear up some of the confusion. The universe you are currently in is not your own. Vulcanus and I have the means to travel to other universes. I know you don't like us right now, and this will probably make you like us a lot less, but the truth is that we ripped you from your reality and brought you to ours. Permanently. So yes, we really are who we say we are, just not the versions you're used to. I for one am a lot stronger than my doppelgangers." Here he paused, finally noticing his lacerated cheek. He closed his eyes momentarily, and the cuts shrank into nothingness until only a smidgen of blood remained.

Having taken care of that, he continued. " I am not familiar with your universe, but judging by your reactions it was a lot different from this one. What you must understand is that Vulcanus and I co-rule this galaxy--I as emperor, he as king. Things go _our_ way. My Empire is vast and powerful, my law absolute." He paused for a moment, reveling in his own praise. Then he came closer to the bars, causing both Han and Leia to instinctively draw back.

Ever the brave soul, Chewie moved closer to the front of the cage and placed himself between Vader and his friends. He did make an effort to keep a reasonable distance back, but even so it wasn't a very wide cage and he was so close he could have reached out and strangled Vader had he been fool enough.

Leia felt a tight ball of nausea twist and turn in her stomach as she met her father's gaze. Such a strange sensation. Even though this version was behaving much nicer than the one in her universe had been, and even though he seemed to genuinely care about her, she couldn't shake the feeling that the pleasant exterior she was seeing was all just an act put on for her benefit. As princess of Alderaan, she'd learned long ago not to ever take anything at face value. Most people were good at masking their true nature when it was to their advantage.

Vader was a bad seed, but the question was--how bad?

This question was not so easy to answer.

She couldn't apply what she knew about Helmet-Wearing Vader to this stronger version. Maybe he shared a few of that Vader's traits, but given how warped Vulcanus's character was when compared to Luke's it was hard telling just how far the differences went.

What Leia had noticed so far was that this Vader seemed to be a lot less fatalistic than his counterpart, which made sense since he'd fared far better in life. He also was in the possession of a sense of humor.

Whether or not Helmet-Wearing Vader had possessed a sense of humor prior to his death was open to debate, but signs pointed towards no.

There was also a huge difference in the way the two related to their Lukes--Helmet-Wearing Vader had basically wanted to drag his son down into the mud with him, so to speak, whilst Emperor Vader's playful attitude towards Vulcanus was much more in tune with a healthy father/son relationship. In fact, judging from their interactions thus far, Vulcanus and Vader were quite close. This hinted strongly that Vader had raised Vulcanus, or at the very least had spent a great deal of time around him.

" Leia," Vader's tone was gentle and almost pleading, " I need you. Be my daughter. Join forces with your brother and I, and you will rule as Queen."

" Yeah? And what happens to the rest of us? " Han was quick to inquire.

" Nothing bad I promise. Any friend of Leia's is a friend of mine. You and your wookie friend will both enjoy elevated status and my full protection." He gave Leia a small smile. " You can even marry him if you want. If that's your choice, I would gladly accept him as my son-in-law."

Vulcanus's eyes flared with the same feral red-and-gold glow his father's had earlier. Now there could be no missing the savage snarl marring his face.

This time the expression did not go unnoticed. Everyone but Vader saw the hateful glare, and it filled them with dread.

Vader may not have seen the act itself, but he definitely noticed the effect it had on his company. " What? " He turned to Vulcanus, but by then all the fire had died out of his son's eyes, leaving them their normal blue color.

Vulcanus shrugged innocently. " What? "

Han opened his mouth to say something, but Leia was quicker on the draw. " So," her words grabbed the attention of both Sith, " what you're saying is that you want me to be Queen? If Vulcanus is King, wouldn't that be incestuous? "

Vulcanus shook his head with vigor, disgusted by the thought. " Not _my _queen, _a _queen. Sheesh, what kind of Sith do you think we are? "

" And no harm will come to Han and Chewie? "

" You have my word." Vader promised evenly.

Leia considered. Given the fact that Vader easily had the power to force her into the role by threatening her friends' lives he was being quite generous by offering her a choice and guaranteeing their safety. Yet she had caught a scary glimpse into both his and Vulcanus's more sinister natures; a grim reminder that both father and son were poisoned with the dark side. She wouldn't trust either of them as far as she could throw them.

But what could she do? Her and her companions were trapped in a bizarre universe with no clue how to get out. The Luke they knew and loved would not be coming to their rescue, and they had no weapons or allies to speak of. All they had was Vader's offer.

Her eyelids fluttered shut momentarily, and she surrendered a soft, weary sigh.

" Well? " Vader prodded impatiently, " What have you decided? "

" Yeah," Vulcanus added, crossing his arms and staring straight at her, " Not to push, but we have an empire to run."

Leia opened her eyes. The decision had came remarkably swift. " Yes."

Han looked slightly surprised, but at the same time caught on to what she was doing. _She's right. No point in refusing and rotting in this hot cage._

Vader brightened. " Excellent. You…"

The door burst open right then, and a wirey young man dressed in a black uniform stepped into the room and saluted. " Lord Vader," he announced loudly, a tremor of fear in his voice, " I regret to inform you that there is talk of mutiny onboard Death Star One."

Vader glared at him. " Do you _think_ that I don't know what goes on onboard my own Death Star? " He growled menacingly.

Wirey Guy looked like he wanted to take a step back--or perhaps several hundred--but he remained planted where he was. " Of course you do, your most exalted excellency. But there are two more things…a rogue skiff spacecraft was spotted landing an hour ago in the Srit Tangean badlands. We think it may have gotten in when two of our orbiting satellites malfunctioned earlier. Permission to initiate a scouting party? "

" Of course you slow-witted imbecile," Vader replied in that same icy tone, " Investigation is implied. I would have thought that would have been clear in your job description. What is the third thing? "

" Prime Minister Xelon of the Ord Mantell system is threatening to wage war on your most valuable planets unless he can speak to you within the hour. He won't tell us what it's about, but we did hear mention of the Jedi."

" Jedi? " Vader's eyes glittered with interest. " Old Obi-Wan must be going senile. I would have thought he'd have more sense than to drag his pathetic band of padawans into my affairs." He turned to Vulcanus. " Looks like I have matters to attend to, Son. Release our new friends and give them a tour of the base. Make sure you explain the rules. I'll be waiting in the main chambers when you're through."

Vulcanus nodded in a way that was an eerie likeness to light-side Luke. " Yes Father."

Vader began to follow his cowardly informer out the door.

A sneaky smile crept across the young Sith Lord's face as he watched his father exit.

" Oh, and Vulcanus? No shady business. If anything happens to any one of them you won't like the consequences."

Vulcanus's ominous smirk disappeared in a flash. Scowling, he turned his attention back to the caged trio. " Come on then. We have a base to tour."

As he busied himself with the lock, the nervous feeling of dread Leia had experienced earlier returned and amplified fivefold. She had a strange feeling that she knew what Vulcanus's devilish grin had been all about, and why it had vanished with Vader's parting words. _We can't trust him. We can't trust him one bit._

This really was a strange reality. The Sith were alive and well, the empire was thriving, and the Jedi were reduced to 'a band of pathetic padawans' led by Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was also still alive. It all seemed so…surreal. Like maybe none of this was really happening. She wanted to say like a dream, but it was actually more like a cross between vivid hallucinations and a nightmare. Like the whole universe had shattered and been re-assembled _wrong_.

But perhaps the strangest thing of all wasn't the strangeness of the foreign universe, but rather than strangeness of her thoughts.

Leia never dreamed she'd see the day where she'd trust Darth Vader before Luke.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O

****

A/N: _I experimented with a new writing style this chapter, simply to see how it would work and to try and capture the air of mystery the trio would be feeling. So if this chapter seemed a bit off from the other ten, that's why. Also, I will confess that I don't really have that good a feel for Han, Leia, and Chewie's characters, so if they seemed a bit out-of-character, sorry. :( I am trying my best to keep everyone as much in character as possible ( with the exception of the AU doppelgangers, of course ), so if you can pinpoint what it is I'm doing wrong I will try to fix it for future chapters._


	12. Dances With Droids

**A/N: **_FF Net has forbidden replying to reviews on story pages, so I will start using the special "Reply" buttons they created on review pages for that purpose. Sorry to anyone whom I didn't respond to last chapter—I sent some replies out, but I lost track of who I had already done and who I hadn't! So if you didn't get a reply, sorry, and I'll try and get ya this chapter. Just so you know I'm actually READING these things._

_Lots of people seemed to like last chapter, which kind of surprised me being as how I looked at it and cringed. I guess I'm being too hard on myself. Thank you so much to those who reviewed and emailed me with help on Han, Leia, and Chewie's characters—I really appreciate it! _

_A few things that came up in my reviews last chapter I thought I'd go ahead and discuss here in case other people were wondering the same things. _

_**1.** Both Vader and Vulcanus have a conscience, and neither are completely evil._

_**2.** Something bad DID happen to the Leia in the Evil doppelgangers' universe. You'll find out what later. _

_**3.** Vulcanus wants Han dead because Han was allowed to get away with insulting him, which is something he isn't used to. To make matters worse his father thought that was funny and is willing to accept Han as his son-in-law. This was a direct slap in Vulcanus's face. He felt that his father was encouraging Han to annoy him, and he doesn't want Han to be a part of the family or have a king status ( which would happen if he married Leia ). Remember that Vulcanus is essentially a spoiled brat who is used to getting his way and killing anyone who upsets him._

_**4 **Leia accepted the offer quickly because Evil Anakin was being nice and promised her friends' protection, and it was better than sitting in that hot cage. Plus they'll get a tour around the base. This would make escape a lot easier, especially if everyone's okay with them being there._

_Oh, and today is my 20th birthday! ((smiles)) I'm on the top of the world! _

**Chapter 12**

_I'm glad that's not who I thought it was._ Anakin breathed a sigh of relief when he laid eyes on the squad of warrior droids bearing down on them. He'd been halfway—okay, _fully_—expecting to see his and Luke's dark doubles outlined in the bright daylight pouring in through the demolished wall. It felt good to be wrong about that.

At his side, Luke slipped into a fighting stance and kept his glowing green lightsaber leveled out in front of him in true Jedi-fashion. Classic self-defense posture. If he'd learned anything from his mentors it was to never be the first to attack a strange new enemy.

And these droids were anything but ordinary.

Standing within the range of seven feet tall, they resembled normal battle-droids only in the respect that they stood upright on two legs and had the usual number of body-parts in all the regular places. The similarities ended there. Unlike the federation's cheap knockoffs, the makers of these mechanical weapons had really put their time and effort into design, materials, and build. One had only to look at them to see they were of fine quality.

From top to bottom, the mechanical warriors were constructed almost entirely of foreign metals resembling ivory and chrome. The legs were thick and powerful with "kneecaps" that bent backwards like a bird's and feet that ended in four razor-talons each: two facing forward, two in the reverse. The torso was broad and heavily protected with several dirty-slate-gray layers of what Anakin recognized as lynectrium—the strongest and most durable metal yet discovered. Short, stubby fingers grasped the middles of electrified fighting staffs.

Perhaps the most striking feature of all, however, was the head. Somewhat similar in shape to a canine's, it sported a long muzzle full of sharp iron teeth, above which two eye-sensors blazed with an evil red glow.

At first glance there appeared to be only a few of them. Bust when the dust finally began to settle and the Skywalkers' eyes had a chance to adjust to the sudden increased brightness, they saw that there were in fact several of these dog-like droids present. At least eight; maybe as many as twelve. And not an inch of them looked friendly.

" What are those things? " Luke shot a worried glance at Maya, only to find the Senttian backing swiftly into the shadowy recesses of the far corner. While she didn't appear downright frightened, she did seem a little concerned.

" Droids of some kind. I have not encountered their likes before."

_Yeah, **that's** real helpful. _Anakin thought as he braced himself for the inevitable battle, _At least I have something real to fight this time. _He brightened. _Hey! Was that a positive thought I just had? _He didn't have long to celebrate.

The droids attacked!

Holding one of the two painful ends of their staffs out in front of them like lances, no less than half a dozen of the metal monsters charged Luke, while the remaining number rushed Anakin.

Both Jedi were ready. The second the overgrown junkheaps were within range they were slashing wildly, all the while taking as much care as they could not to get into each other's way.

Of course, this being a pub, there were plenty of hazards lying around to make life difficult.

As embarrassing as it would have been, Anakin nearly got thumped a good one by the first staff-end aimed his way simply because he stumbled over a food-wrapper some idiot had just left on the floor.

Whoosh!

_Staff!_

The Jedi padawan ducked in the nick of time and felt the air from the botched assault ruffle his hair. Before the droid could bring it's weapon back around for another strike, he rocketed out of his assumed crouch and stabbed the silvery-metallic space just between it's eyes.

The elite warrior-droid stiffened, twitched, and then began to fall.

" Scrapmetal! " Anakin laughed, feeling well-pleased. It was a jibe he often made while fighting droids with Obi-Wan, and it seemed most appropriate here.

" Anakin? If you're not too busy, a little help would be nice! "

Anakin whirled to see Luke surrounded by every droid in the room minus the one he'd put down. As one, they lunged at him.

" Coming! " Anakin flung himself into the fray and slashed the backs of the two nearest droids. As was to be expected when fighting androids, there was no yelp of pain. No jerk of shock. Swiftly and almost silently, the two assaulted droids spun around. One attempted to swat Anakin with it's staff while the other opened it's snout and blew a jet of flame at his face.

Anakin shunted left and avoided having the hair on his head burned off, but the tip of the staff grazed his shoulder, delivering a painful jolt to his nerve-endings. He swiped at the thing's hands, but it moved it's staff in the way and, much to his surprise, his lightsaber was unable to pass through it.

_Okay, that's_ _weird. _Just what kind of metal could hold up against the incredible white heat of a lightsaber blade? Even lynectrium couldn't do that.

The droid pushed back against the lightsaber, and for a fleeting moment when the sunlight struck it at just the right angle the light-gray shaft of the staff sparkled; as if a thousand tiny twinkling stars were embedded within.

_What in the name of all the planets is that! _Anakin had no time to contemplate the mysterious substance. Sensing that the droids behind him were about to prod him with their staffs, he flipped around to handle the situation. But there were simply too many of them. No matter which direction he faced he could not help but to have his back turned to at least two. Aware of this, he twirled and whirled and spun like an out-of-control dervish. Struck where he could. Dodged where he couldn't. In and out in and out. Weaving. Slashing. Jerking around in a wild fervor.

Fire!

An explosion of yellow and red flame erupted from the gaping maw of one of the canine droids.

Anakin used the Force to lift a table and hurl it into the droid's face. Wood splintered across metal, and the fire-breather staggered back a few steps, temporarily thrown off balance.

It never got the chance to recover.

The air blazed with a streak of green, and Luke's lightsaber sliced through it's cranium.

" The head! Go for the head! " Luke called as he dived under the staff of one assailant and used the Force to fling another into it's friend. The two droids went down in a tangle of staffs and limbs.

Even amidst the chaos of battle, Anakin could not help but to notice how skilled a fighter Luke was, and it made him proud. Obi-Wan and Yoda had taught him well. He'd somehow managed to whittle his way out of the center of an impossible number of Super Droids without so much as a scratch. Not that he himself couldn't also have done it, but it just went to show that Skywalker genes were fighting genes no matter which reality you happened to inhabit. Successfully dodging blows from a squadron of super warrior droids while at the same time managing not to trip and fall over on one of the many tables, chairs, out-of-service waitress droids, wrappers, and dishes in a mostly darkened room would be a challenging obstacle course for even though most well-trained of Jedi masters, yet here they were, doing just that. _And I'm not even a knight yet!_

For just a split-second, Anakin's spirits rose. As good as he was now, he knew beyond doubt that he was still but a shadow of his future-self.

Then he remembered Maya's little show-and-tell, and, well, that happy feeling faded pretty quickly. Nasty as these droids were, he'd rather fight a hundred of them than be subjected to _those_ visuals again.

Maya…where was she, anyway?

Anakin craved to shoot an eye in the last place he'd seen her, but the small army that was trying to turn him into the Jedi-equivalent of a power-coupling demanded his full attention. Wherever she was and whatever she was doing, she was going to have to wait.

X-x-X-x-X-x-X

If Luke had ever been in a more trying battle that didn't involve Vader and/or Palpatine, he couldn't remember when. None of the droids or Storm Troopers he'd fought before had come anywhere near this level of lethalness. Avoiding serious injury required him to constantly remain in motion, and, quite frankly, he was surprised he'd lasted this long without either being poked into an electrical oblivion or bumping into something. Everywhere he turned he faced swinging staffs and kicking talons. So far he'd managed to put two of the metal monsters out of commission, but there were still plenty left to cause him grief.

The droid currently in front of him held it's staff up in front of it's chest and belched a torrent of flame.

Thinking fast, the young Jedi knight jumped behind one of the other droids to shield himself from the blast. This worked, but a little fire on the chest wasn't enough to bother the afflicted droid. Unfazed, it kicked backward with it's foot.

Luke thrust himself sharply to one side and managed to miss the brunt of the blow, but not all of it. One of the razor-talons grazed his thigh.

The sharp sting felt from that was nothing—he'd endured far worse. But then two of those awful electrical staffs hit him at once, and it was Palpatine's Force lightning all over again.

He couldn't move! Every nerve in his body tingled with pain.

The droids closed in. He tried to swing at them, but his muscles were dead under his command. As he looked on in horror, three more lightning staffs were leveled at him. _Oh sweet mother of Palpatine, that's going to **hurt**! _

He willed ever fiber in his being to move, struggled to do something, _anything_, but it was no use. The electric staffs all came on him at once, stinging him in five different places. This time the pain was unbearable.

With a sharp cry Luke dropped his lightsaber and collapsed to the floor, every cell in his body afire with burning agony. He lay there twitching and convulsing as the powerful current worked it's way through his body.

So fast!

It had happened so fast…

He couldn't form any coherent thoughts. He was in too much pain. The room jerked around him in violent red and white flashes. Voices.

No.

_A _voice.

A voice calling Ankain's name.

The steely gray and white Super Droids swimming in and out of his sight were set with cold determination. They would not pity him. They were already preparing for another strike. Already swooping in to finish him off….

X-x-X-x-X-x-X

From the other end of the room Anakin heard Luke call his name. He hadn't meant to get so far away, but the cluster of droids he'd been fighting had been ushering—no, _driving_—him further and further away from his son, from his ally.

Classic move: isolate and destroy. Anakin had been in a large number of battles before this, and the strategy was pretty common, but this was the first time he'd seen it employed by droids. That in itself was a scary revelation, but scarier still was the thought of losing Luke. He had to get over there. Fast.

But how?

The droids had him backed against the bar. They all had their staffs raised, and unless a miracle happened he would not be able to fight his way through them in enough time to assist Luke. As it was all four of them were about ready to prod him all at once with the ends of their lightsaber-proof staffs, and as good as he was at dodging, Anakin knew better than to think he could successfully dodge a simultaneous assault from every direction.

Then a horrible stench reached his nose, like that of a dead bantha left to decay on a hot day. His eyes flashed to the countertop where a variety of food and drink lay scattered about in utter disarray.

Was that—why yes, it was. A huge bowl of liverex-tentacle soup lay nestled amongst the other junk on the counter; it's foul reek betraying it's identity and lending credit to the widespread opinion of it being the most disgusting dish in the galaxy. Some people even joked that the greasy brown soup was enough to short-circuit a droid if splashed over it's sensors. _Let's put that theory to the test._

Quick as lightning, Anakin used the Force to jerk the bowl containing the vile concoction off the countertop and into the face of one of the droids. Then he summoned up a massive Force push and knocked the entire quartet back a few steps before gathering his muscles and launching into a flying leap that took him right over the head of the soup-faced droid, who was too busy clawing at the thick, meaty chunks of gooey severed livrex tentacles to notice.

_I'm coming Luke! _Anakin covered the distance between him and his fallen son in record time. With barely a noise he again jumped into the air; this time flinging his feet out in front of him to come down hard on the back of the most convenient droid. The thing went crashing face-first to the ground underneath him. Standing atop it, he plunged his lightsaber into the back of it's head.

Before any of the other droids in the circle had time to react, he lashed out again and took the arm off the one on the right. The one on his left made a jab for him with it's staff, but he twirled, went down low, and liberated it's legs from it's body with one slashing stroke. He was pivoting around again even before the pieces finished falling, his sights set on the one-armed droid he'd wounded seconds before.

The droid may not have had it's staff—that having fallen out of it's grip with the loss of the arm brandishing it—but it was far from helpless. Hot red blaster-bolts shot out of pits beneath it's eyes.

Anakin caught one with the blade of his weapon, but the other nicked his shoulder. Ignoring the pain he tried to leap back, to put some distance between himself and this blast-happy machine, but a droid just out of his peripheral vision caught him in the side with a good solid kick, and he collided with a couple of overturned tables halfway across the room.

Anakin quickly untangled himself from the mess of thrashed furnishings and rose to find the soup-covered droid looming over him. It Didn't appear to be able to see through the sticky brown goo on it's eyes, but whatever sensors it still had functional were apparently good enough. It swung it's staff.

Anakin caught the weapon with his lightsaber and pushed against it, throwing the Force into his efforts.

No good.

The droid had the advantage of being pure machine while he was made of flesh and blood. It shoved his lightsaber back nearly into his face, and he was forced to give up and take evasive action.

Meanwhile, Luke was having problems of his own. His father's huge distraction had bought him enough time to recover from the paralyzing effects of the staffs and regain his lightsaber, but that was it. The second he was back on his feet he was again dodging staffs, fire, and feet.

There were less droids now, but—almost as if they were conscious of this fact— they began fighting more fiercely.

Forget striking back—it took every ounce of Luke's power and reflexes just to avoid getting seriously hurt. From his position near the entertainers' stage ( how had he gotten pushed over there? ) he caught a flash of Anakin diving behind an overturned table and instant before a pair of droids blew fire over it. Then he was too busy defending himself to concentrate on much else.

His back to the stage, Luke held his blazing sword out in front of him defensively, ready for attack. A droid swung at him. He deflected it's staff, but the machine did not give up. It tried it's luck with another strike, and now two of it's buddies rushed in to help with the kill.

Luke shoved the new party crashers back with the Force and threw a table into the face of his closest enemy. The droid buckled back and dropped it's staff. For a moment it stumbled awkwardly over the smashed debris, trying to keep it's balance, but it's feet were not designed for grace and it lost the battle to gravity.

Luke did a backward flip and landed smoothly on the stage. Extending his left hand, he called the free staff to it and gripped the cold metal firmly. _If you're going to fight a Super Droid, why not use the weapon of a Super Droid? _

All this should have been fine and dandy, but something was happening to the remaining Super Droids. If they'd been fighting like warriors before they were launching into Extreme Butt Kicking Mode now. Suddenly there was the crisp 'Tseeeeeew! Tseeeeeew!' of blaster fire, and everything went from dangerous to deadly.

Now the Super Droids they were no longer concerned with watching out for each other; they just let it all out. Blaster-bolts shot from their eyes in rapid-fire succession while they whirled around like insane tornados of staffs and feet; slashing, swatting, and ripping at everything standing between them and their targets. They were also breathing fire while they did all this.

There was no getting near them. Tables and chairs were smashed to splinters or sent flying. The few waitress droids unfortunate enough to be in the room were decimated to a broken collection of spare parts.

Luke watched with horror as a bowl of food was flung off a countertop by a rampant staff and sent hurtling in his direction. Out of reflex he knocked it out of his path with the Force and it hit a droid that was already covered with something gross in the head. Blinded, the unlucky droid lit out towards the center of the room, only to be attacked by it's partner. The other droid kicked, swatted, and blasted it with fire until it was out of it's way.

This display of sheer barbaricy gave Luke an idea. " Anakin! ANAKIN!" He shouted over the roar of the madhouse, " Shove them into each other! "

He didn't hear a reply—not that he expected to with all the noise the droids were making—but Anakin must've heard because an instant later one of the spinning, enraged droids flew forcefully into one of it's companions, and the two collapsed—still fighting—to the floor where a third droid tripped over them.

_Now we're getting somewhere. _Luke thought as he dodged a few poorly-aimed blaster-bolts and waited for the closest droid to get within a good range. Once it did, he threw his lightsaber. The bright green blade passed through the mechanical neck, severing head from body. Being resourceful, Luke picked the now headless droid up with the Force and threw it into the chest of the one-armed droid whose blaster-bolts were getting too close for comfort. Then, taking the fighting staff in both hands, he dropped down from the stage and charged the droid that was going for Anakin.

Anakin was deflecting it's blaster-bolts with his lightsaber, but the fact that he also had to dodge fire severely limited his ability to get in a damaging attack.

Luke, on the other hand, was now directly behind the source of the problem and observed no such limitations. While the thing was busy with his father he jabbed it in the back as hard as a he could with the business end of his electrified staff. " There! How do _you_ like it? " He hissed savagely.

The droid stiffened. It stopped shooting blaster-bolts. Ceased it's fire.

Luke drew back the staff and hit it again and again, and, to his satisfaction, he could hear circuits fry and pop every other blow.

The stunned droid began to topple over, and Anakin slashed it's head off. " There's another one for the junkheap! " He laughed, a wild sparkle in his eyes, " Isn't revenge sweet? "

Luke didn't say anything. Didn't want to admit to his less-than-selfless father that yes, that _had_ felt good. Slaying machines was different than slaying living things, of course, but he could only imagine how blurry that line must be in Anakin's mind and he didn't want to encourage any vengeful feelings. Anakin was vengeful enough just the way he was.

Now only three of the original Droid Canine Pack were still up and kicking.

Anakin flashed Luke a grin. " Are you thinking what I'm thinking? " He used the Force to draw Luke's fallen lightsaber into his hand. The blade came back to life with the familiar crackling hiss.

" Right with you." Luke said, giving his staff a fanciful twirl that caused Anakin to have a flashback to his fight with Vulcanus, " Let's do it! "

Father and son charged.

The three remaining droids were clustered near the bar portion of the pub and appeared disoriented and confused; probably from having too many of their vital circuits and sensors fried. One was repeatedly kicking the bar while another had a nice fire going on the remains of a table. The soup-droid was spinning around idiotically firing blaster-bolts and swinging it's staff in every direction.

Working together, Anakin and Luke had little difficulty finishing them off and extinguishing the little fires that had been started around the room.

" Well, that was interesting." Anakin remarked as he and Luke deactivated their lightsabers, " Where's Maya? "

Luke looked around the new disaster area and frowned. The Senttian was nowhere to be seen. " Maya? " He called.

No answer.

Now it was Anakin's turn to frown." Where'd she go? I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

" You get a bad feeling about everything." Luke pointed out, though he was feeling a tad uneasy himself. He felt a sharp stinging sensation and was reminded of the vicious cut on his thigh.

Anakin gave him an odd look. " What, someone sends a bunch of super attack droids after us, our Senttian turns up missing, and you're _not _getting a bad feeling? " He gestured to their broken foes littering the floor, many of which were still twitching with electricity. " Who _sent_ these? You've seen the village…if everyone is like that, who could afford to create these and send them after us? They weren't cheaply made."

" Our Sith doppelgangers? " Luke suggested, still frowning. They most certainly would have the money and resources, but…_But if Vulcanus doesn't view us as a threat then why would he send these guys? He doesn't strike me as the type who would run off and hide behind droids, especially if he's anywhere near as powerful as Maya indicated. _

" I don't think these are Imperial," Anakin said as he bent down to better examine one of the droids' masterfully-detailed heads, " They lack an insignia or any other identifying marks. It's like whoever made them wanted to remain anonymous. Besides, Vulcanus turned down the chance to kill us, why would he send his flunkies in to do it? "

" You're right." Luke agreed, " I don't think the Sith have anything to do with this. Vulcanus is too arrogant and Vader always was more of the hands-on type. They probably wouldn't care about keeping us busy. If either of them were really that worried about us ruining their plans they'd come here themselves rather than play around with droid assassins. Maybe whoever sent these…" He froze mid-sentence.

Someone was close by. He not only sensed it, but heard it too.

The grainy rustle of rocks being shuffled around from somewhere just outside the ruined wall was followed by a muffled "_Oomph!_" and the sound of metal against rock-plaster.

Anakin and Luke exchanged curious glances. Whoever it was, they were about as graceful as a bantha in a glass shop.

Taking the cover of shadow that still existed along one side of the room, the Skywalkers crept closer to the hole. Then, reaching an large pile of plaster-rock that had once been a large portion of the left-hand wall, they ducked into the darkest shadows and waited for the stranger to reveal himself.

They didn't have long to wait.

There was more bumping around of rocks, and a human-shaped shadow lumbered little by little into view until a dark figure eclipsed some of the bright daylight flooding through the side of the pub.

" There isn't any point in hiding," the rich baritone of an older man rang out into the silence, " I know you're still here. Quit the headgames, Vulcanus, and show yourself."

X-x-X-x-X-x-X

**A/N: **_There it is! Check my bio for news on when the next chapter will be coming. Reviews make LOVELY birthday presents! XD_


	13. An Unseen Advantage?

**A/N: **_It's been _**_far_** _too long since I've updated this, but real life got in the way. I spent my summer uninspired and not writing. Now that my muse is returning, I have mountains of college-work to keep me busy, so, much to my ( and probably your ) dismay, frequent updates just aren't possible for now. If I'm going to be honest this probably wont get updated again until December, but I will try to do it sooner if it's at all possible. I love my stories, I just don't have as much free time as I used to. _

_I have submitted this chapter for beta-reading, but I got antsy to update so I decided to go ahead and post it anyway and just make any changes I need once I hear back from my beta. _

**Chapter 13**

At first, Luke wasn't quite sure how to react. When his eyes adjusted to the lighting a split-second later he saw that the mysterious figure outlined against the bright Tatooinian landscape was indeed, as the voice had suggested, an older man. His exact age was difficult to guess—anywhere between forty and sixty was in the ballpark. His skin was a bit paler than normal and contrasted sharply with his dark hair. Unlike all the other life forms they had encountered so far save Maya and Vader and Vulcanus's minion, this guy was clean, well-dressed, and, aside from his pallid complexion, appeared relatively healthy. The expression he wore was difficult to read, but the wave of fear rolling off him was as obvious as the crooked nose on his face.

Anakin broke the silence. "Sorry to disappoint, but Vulcanus isn't here." He stepped out of hiding and kicked a mechanical arm aside, making a point to scoff in disgust at the thing's owner, before turning his attention back to the older man. " Who are you and what do you know about these droids that attacked me?"

Luke slid into deeper shadows and ducked behind a pile of smashed tables and chairs, taking note of Anakin's word choice. _Good idea—the man will be more open if he doesn't see me. Anakin doesn't look _too _much like Vader right now, but I'm a dead ringer for Vulcanus. _

At the sudden appearance of a person he hadn't been expecting, the man's eyebrows jerked up with surprise. Then, as this new face had a chance to register, his expression changed from surprise to shock. "You…" He fumbled for words, " you…_you're_ the one who defeated my Avengers!"

"Oh, so that's what you called those walking scrap-heaps?" Anakin replied smugly, "No challenge at all. Your little assassination attempt failed."

Pale Guy looked like he was a step away from a nervous breakdown. He just kept frowning and shaking his head, his face twisted into the picture of disappointed disbelief, like a kid who normally got good grades suddenly flunking a test. " N-no," he stammered quietly, his cracked voice barely above a whisper. His eyes swept over the demolished Avengers before hitting back on Anakin, as if he simply could not believe he was responsible. "You ruined everything!" He yelled at last, stabbing an accusing finger at Anakin, " It wasn't supposed to be you! I sent them after Darth Vulcanus, not _you_!"

It was Anakin's turn to be surprised. " Darth Vulcanus? You mean to tell me you sent these…these _jokes_ after Darth Vulcanus!"

"They were _not_ jokes!" The man huffed indignantly, "Do you have any idea how long it took me to make these droids? Twenty years! Twenty years of painstaking, secretive work! Twenty years of planning! Twenty years of risking death to steal the parts I needed! And then you go and wreck it all inside half an hour. All that work—wasted!"

He knew he shouldn't—_really _shouldn't—but Anakin couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face. "Twenty years huh? And I broke them like toys…too bad Vulcanus had to miss out. I'm sure he would have been trembling in his boots."

_Nice one, Anakin. _Luke groaned inwardly, taking care not to make his presence known, _As usual your tact and social skills are legendary. _

For a moment the pale stranger just stood there, blinking, as though Anakin had just rattled off at him in a language he didn't understand. His eyes drifted from his fallen droids to the brazen young man who claimed to have single-handedly destroyed them. Then something clicked, and he flung a lightning-quick glance over his shoulder before returning his attention back to Anakin. "Are you…" his voice was low now, almost a full whisper, "by chance a Jedi?"

Anakin blushed faintly. This guy wasn't so dumb after all. "Maybe. Why do you ask?"

The man pointed down to the floor where one of his mechanical pets was making feeble attempts to inflict damage on some non-existent attacker with a few jerky motions of its arms.

Only, its arms weren't there—they'd been cut off seamlessly a few inches past the shoulder.

" I know lightsaber marks when I see them, bucko. No other weapon could make that clean a cut through my special super-alloy. Now, the only ones around here who carry lightsabers are the Sith Lords. Since you're definitely not one of them you must be a Jedi. They're the only other beings in the galaxy who possess that type of weapon, and nothing less than a Jedi could have defeated my Avengers. Am I right?"

Anakin nodded, and the droids' master broke out into a shallow half-smile. "Well how about that? And here everyone was sure we'd seen the last of you guys. Aint been a Jedi spotted around these parts since Vader chased 'ol Obi-Wan off twelve years ago. And I have to tell you, things were much better when he was around."

With extreme care, he made his way over his broken creations and came to a halt an arm's length in front of Anakin. " Name's Hobbard Gitchman." He extended his hand and it was with some reluctance that the padawan took it in a half-hearted handshake. "And you would be?"

_Oh Force, it can't be anything he has any chance of being familiar with! Thinkquickthinkquick_…

"Kit Fisto." Anakin blurted at the drop of a hat. It had been the first thing that had come to mind.

Okay, so it was the name of another Jedi, and he looked nothing like the _real_ Kit Fisto, but Hobbard wouldn't know any better.

Hopefully.

The dark-haired man retracted his hand and folded his arms over his frail chest. His smile was gone now, but there was still a twinkle of excitement in his worn eyes. He studied Anakin over carefully, as though searching for something.

Anakin felt his patience fade. "What?"

Hobbard shook his head gently, perplexed. "I haven't made up my mind yet whether you're brave or stupid. If Vader and Vulcanus find you they will kill you. They're very Jedi-intolerant. And they don't like it when people go around giving their subjects hope."

"Is that why you think I came? To give everyone hope?" _How ironic. _Anakin shifted his gaze to the floor. Watched a singed Avenger droid kick its compatriot repeatedly in the face. Suddenly he didn't feel like a hero, or even the Jedi he'd been trained to be.

Hobbard followed his line of sight to the malfunctioning droids and frowned in disgust. "Why else would you come? You seem sane enough to me so there's no way you came to try and topple the Empire, and so long as it stands we will suffer. Things do get a little better when one or both of the Sith leave the system, but you didn't wait for that to happen. Taken at face value that seems like an incredibly stupid thing to do, but I'm sure you must have your reasons since they don't train just anybody to be a Jedi. But I don't know what those reasons are, so what am I supposed to think?"

With a half-hearted sigh, he kicked the droid that was being assaulted out of its companion's reach.

Anakin didn't know how to answer that. What he _did_ know was that he needed to get this guy who obviously had it in for Vulcanus to leave. Then Luke could come out of hiding and they could find a more private place to brainstorm.

But first he had to ask a question, a question which he hoped would yield some enlightening answers. "You put so much effort into those droids…does that mean you know of a weakness the Sith have? I mean, you wouldn't just design them without a plan of action, right?"

Hobbard shook his head. "They're not invincible, but from what I can tell it would take a heckuva lot to hurt them. Eight years ago, as I'm sure you remember, a renegade army of fifteen-thousand of the Outer Rim's best warriors, both living and machine, actually managed to surprise Darth Vader during and unscheduled visit he made to the planet Dolene. Everything was in their favor; they knew the planet well, had state-of-the-art weaponry and technology, were successful in jamming all enemy communications, and outnumbered Vader's on-planet forces fifteen-to-one. Vader annihilated them. Then, of course, he had the results of the skirmish broadcasted all over the galaxy as a warning to anyone else thinking about starting a rebellion. Well, I saw the original transmission, and Vader didn't look any worse for his encounter save a faded pink mark on his cheek. Ever since I've made it a priority to discover which weapon did that, but I never saw the transmission again and without more information I can't narrow the list down below twenty possibilities. My Avengers here…" he gestured to the collection of spare parts littering the area, "were equipped with the weapons I considered to be the most likely candidates: ultra-lasers, kazma lasers, ulred beams, electro-stalites, and a little flame-throwing action thrown in just because I had the materials on hand. I even made an effort to replicate the Siths' Jabberwock laser, but it flopped. I guess the Force just wasn't with me." He shook his head slowly, haggard gray eyes fixed steadily on the floor. " I suppose this serves me right…I should have known better than to send these things out without more testing. If you could give them this bad a beating Vulcanus would have wiped them out in no time."

Anakin quirked an eyebrow. "If you were after Vulcanus, why send your droids here? Why not send them to the volcano lair?"

"I thought Vulcanus was _here_. A friend of mine said she'd seen him go in. Guess she was wrong." Hobbard's voice carried a subtle hint of embarrassment. " I thought I'd catch him off-guard. You know, hit hard while he was all alone? I should have waited, I see that now, but…Vulcanus is hard to catch and even harder to surprise. I may never have gotten another chance like that again. It was just too tempting. Now…now I've blown my only real chance."

Anakin was just about to use a Jedi mind-trick and suggest the distraught inventor go for a non-alcoholic beverage and find a new purpose in life when the man turned around on his own and started for the gaping hole in the wall.

"Well, I suppose it's time to come up with Plan B. If I can't kill the Sith I may as well make life as hard as I can for them while I'm alive. That's something, at least." As he exited, Hobbard tossed a hand up in a backward gesture for goodbye. " It's too bad you didn't catch me sooner, Jedi. Years ago I was working on a device to help your kind in their struggle against the Sith. It was a Force cloaker, and it was showing much promise in the preliminary testing stages before the Empire's lickspittles came and confiscated it. Such a shame. It was one of my greatest creations; breakaway technology that could have tipped the odds a little more in our favor. But I don't even have the notes now."

_Force cloaker! _Anakin hurried over and caught the retreating genius by the shoulder.

The man made a gruff noise of surprise and turned to face him—it had been a long time since anyone had shown that much zeal for a failed experiment.

"This Force cloaker," Anakin could barely contain his excitement, "would it make the Sith unable to detect a Jedi's presence through the Force?"

Hobbard blinked; he wasn't used to people showing this much enthusiasm for, well, _anything _in these parts. It was a refreshing change. The first phase of a smile bloomed at the corner of his mouth. "Well, yes—in theory it should. The device itself is very complex, but the basic idea isn't as hard to grasp. A series of chiplets of an extremely rare type of xenian crystal line the inner chamber, and, when rotated rapidly enough and shot through with the charged ions from a high-frequency gamma-ray, manipulate the planet's magnetic field in such a way that it creates a small pocket of magnetic energy around the user. A third component emits harmless waves of low-frequency micro-rays which, for some reason as of yet unknown to science, seem to have the effect of disrupting the Force itself. These waves are trapped within the pocket of magnetic field generated around the user, and evidence supports the idea that this renders the user invisible to the Force."

Anakin felt some of his joy fade. "But that would mean that…"

"Yes," Hobbard butted in, completing his thought, "A Force-sensitive being wouldn't be able to sense your presence, but you wouldn't be able to use the Force at all while the device was turned on. An experiment I performed with two Jedi confirms this."

_Of course, _Anakin thought sourly, _There always has to be a catch. Nothing worth having ever comes free. Lightsabers. The Jedi Knight rank. A friggen _decent _life free of betrayal, tragedy, and the Dark Side. Everything has to have a price-tag attached. _

Hobbard couldn't read the Jedi's mind, but the expression on the his face spoke loudly enough. "You're thinking about going after it, aren't you?"

"Depends. Is it by chance close by?" Anakin prayed the answer was 'yes'. While he was by no means enamored with the prospect of forfeiting his Force powers right before starting a mission to the enemy lair, it was a relatively small price to pay for the element of surprise. Better with than without. _Besides, we can always turn the thing off if we need to. _

"Last I heard it was taken to the Confiscated Weapons and Technology facility at the base of Inferno Ridge. Of course, that was thirteen years ago so I can't promise that it's still there, but if I were you that would be the first place I'd check. You know where Inferno Ridge is?"

Anakin nodded. "Yes."

Of course he knew. He'd been there less than four hours ago with Luke and that annoying Tusken child looking for Rajad. True, there was a lot at stake here, and he was happy for the chance to affect his destiny—if that's what he was doing—but part of him wished they'd never found her. He didn't know why.

Hobbard offered the padawan a weak smile. "You're all set then. Just remember to make sure that none of the Storm Troopers report you to the Sith before you can find the blasted thing." He turned and made his way out into the bright sunlight, his steps sounding a little heavier than they should have on the course, grainy sand. "Oh, and you might want to keep the Force cloaker on for at least half an hour before you go anywhere within ten units of a place you think you might encounter the Sith," he added as an afterthought, "I only experimented with Jedi, but because everyone's favorite Sith Lords have such a ridiculously powerful connection to the Force it might take longer for the micro-rays in the magnetic bubble to build up to a level where they wouldn't be able to sense you. Just a word from the wise. Last time I crossed paths with Vulcanus I got my legs Jabberwocked off. The medical unit had to further amputate the area a few inches above the laceration just to save my life. It really _is _better to be safe than sorry."

Anakin smiled in a way which was friendly but not completely sincere. "Thanks for the warning. I will be careful." He waited until Hobbard had disappeared from sight before whirling back around to check on his son.

Luke was already on his feet and heading not for the door, but for the area that he and Anakin had been sitting prior to the Avengers interruption. Pausing his stride, he stooped over to pick something Anakin couldn't readily identify up before continuing on towards the restrooms.

"What's that?" Anakin asked, puzzled.

Without so much as a backward glance Luke raised his right hand. In it was a soft lavender-ish ink pen. He'd snatched it from the place the love-note had fallen during the battle.

Anakin grinned. He knew instantly what Luke was planning.

"The device is held in a facility guarded by Storm Troopers, right? They may have orders to question civilians, but how many do you think are going to question their king?"


End file.
